After the Florida Panthers’ morning skate at the Garden on Tuesday, coach Paul Maurice was asked what he expected from the Bruins after their roster was turned over at the trade deadline.

The ever-thoughtful Maurice mulled it over in his mind and asked rhetorically, “When is the last time the pressure was off the Bruins?”

The implication was that the the B’s would be a dangerous foe. Maurice wasn’t wrong. The B’s stunned the defending champs with three goals in the third period for a 3–2 win in the most dramatic game of the season.

After the Bruins wiped out a 2-0 deficit in the third with goals from David Pastrnak (power play) and Mason Lohrei, Pavel Zacha gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead with 3:17 left in the third off a brilliant Pastrnak backhand pass.

After a trade deadline that saw the B’s dish out a half dozen players, including captain Brad Marchand, the B’s have now scored wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Panthers to pull to within two points of the second wild card Blue Jackets, though Columbus still has two games in hand. It’s still very much an uphill battle for the B’s to make the playoffs, but a little underdog energy – something the B’s haven’t had in a long time – couldn’t hurt.

“We understand where we’re at in the standings and we understand what just transpired with our group,” said interim coach Joe Sacco. “But we have new players here, it’s opportunity for these guys and whatever motivates them, if it’s the underdog role, if it’s ‘I have an opportunity here that maybe I didn’t have before somewhere,’ what I’m trying to do and what we’re trying to do as a staff is we want to see us come together as a team as quickly as we can. That produces winning hockey.”

The Zacha goal held up as the game-winner but it was by no means the end of the game.

After a dust-up that sent Jakub Lauko and Anton Lundell off for roughing with 3:07 left, Florida pulled Sergei Bobrovsky for the extra skater with 2:56 to go. Florida, as the B’s are well aware, has the ability to score with their net empty.

On the 5-on-4, Sam Reinhart jammed home the puck with 1:31 left in regulation but after a review it was ruled the whistle had blown.

The B’s survived over a minute of intense pressure and, with 3.3 seconds left, Nikita Zadorov deflected a Florida scoring chance out of play. After the whistle, Bruin nemesis Sam Bennett gave Zadorov a crosscheck and Zadorov was having none of it. He immediately dropped the gloves and pummeled Bennett in front of the net. As he skated, Zadorov exhorted his bench, much to the delight of the crowd – and his teammates.

“I haven’t been that fired up in a long time,” beamed Lohrei.

Zadorov didn’t have a perfect game. He took a penalty to give the Panthers a 5-on-3 power play on which they took a 2-0 lead. But he ended the game with the kind exclamation point that garnered forgiveness.

“There’s always the game inside the game and you try to win those,” said Zadorov of the fight. “We are where we’re at in the standings and that’s not where we want to be, so hopefully we’re going to be higher up and we can match those guys in the playoffs. There’s definitely a history between these two teams. I haven’t been part of it. I mean, I’m just playing hard. I’m in front of the net and the guy crosschecks me in the face and I’ve got to step up for myself. That was just a moment. I wasn’t thinking to send a message. I play hard against any player in the league.”

It was a wild ending to a game that was slow to boil.

There wasn’t much buzz in the first period, though B’s actually started OK. Morgan Geekie came a few inches away from putting them up by a goal when he clanged the post to Bobrovsky’s left. But the B’s, understandably given all the new personnel, had some issues getting out of their zone at times with some simple D-to-D passes not connecting.

But while the Panthers held a 10-6 shot advantage, the defending Stanley Cup champions did not have a ton of scoring chances. That didn’t stop them from taking an early lead at 4:27. Bennett won a faceoff in the left dot back to Dmitry Kulikov at the blue line and simply beat Jeremy Swayman (24 saves) with a long distance shot past the glove. Swayman reacted slowly, suggesting he was a victim of a flash screen.

The Panthers gave the B’s a chance to get back even when they took consecutive penalties. But in four minutes of 5-on-4 time, Florida kept the B’s on the outside, if not in their own end trying to prevent a shorthanded goal.

Florida got its first power play when Pastrnak was guilty of an offensive zone hooking penalty at 12:02 and, if ever there was a chance for the Panthers to put the hammer down, this was it. But the B’s killers did the job and they got the game into the third period down just a goal.

The B’s held a 7-6 shot advantage in the second.

Though they held their own through the first 40 minutes, they finally shot themselves in the foot.

Patrick Brown took a kneeing penalty on Kulikov, which was a questionable call. What wasn’t in doubt was the roughing penalty on Sam Reinhart by Zadorov as the Bruin defenseman fell on the Florida wing and then gave him an extra shot when he was on top of him, though Sacco didn’t agree with that assessment.

“I just thought there was a battle going on,” said Sacco.

That gave Florida a 56-second 5-on-3 and with four seconds left on it, Seth Jones dished to Mackie Samoskevich for an open one-timer and a 2-0 lead at 4:49.

But the B’s got one back at 8:56 on the power play after Pastrnak drew a tripping call on Jones. On the PP, Elias Lindholm made a nice one-handed play to shovel the puck to Casey Mittelstadt in the corner. Mittelstadt found Pastrnak in front of the net and he roofed it over Bobrovsky.

When play resumed, Bobrovsky immediately shot the puck over the glass to give the B’s another PP, but they could not cash in.

But they got the equalizer with 6:09 left in the third period. Lohrei pounced on a Florida turnover and beat Bobrovsky with a hard wrister from the slot.

That set up the crazy finish. And for once against the Panthers, the Bruins came out on top.