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Kalman: Rare Crunch Time Chance Becomes Winning Time For Lucic, Linemates

BOSTON (CBS) - Playing on a line with rookies David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner has cut down forward Milan Lucic's opportunities to play in crunch time down the stretch of the Bruins' run to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Lucic had no such problem on Tuesday, and he made the most of his chance by scoring the game-winning goal with a wrist shot from the high slot with 1:09 remaining in a dramatic 3-2 Bruins win against the Florida Panthers at TD Garden.

The victory kept the Bruins three points ahead of the Ottawa Senators for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, and moved Boston within two points of the Detroit Red Wings for third place in the Atlantic Division. The Panthers are now six points behind the Bruins.

Because of their inexperience and defensive deficiencies, according to coach Claude Julien, the line of Spooner centering Pastrnak and Lucic has been sheltered by the coach in tight games, especially in third periods. Against Florida, Julien said he was only trying to keep Spooner's line away from one Florida trio – the one with Aleksander Barkov centering Jonathan Huberdeau and Jaromir Jagr. That meant more opportunities for Lucic, Spooner and Pastrnak to get involved in the third period of a game the Bruins trailed after 40 minutes.

Lucic has been one of the Bruins' "money" players Julien leans on when the Bruins need a big goal or momentum-changing check for several years. It's been a different world for the 26-year-old since David Krejci tore a ligament in his knee in late February and returned to the lineup this month as a right winger.

"It's different," Lucic said. "Because you're used to being there in those crunch times. And being reliable for those important times, to start a period, to end a period, to end a game, 6-on-5 and stuff like that. If you're not out there, you still try to do what you can to kind of just be a cheerleader and give the guys confidence and to have confidence in them get that job done. They did it here today when we needed them to big time."

Almost from the time they were first put together, Lucic, Spooner and Pastrnak have enjoyed offensive chemistry. Against the Panthers, they flaunted it 9:47 into the third period, when Pastrnak chipped the puck from beyond the red line into the Florida zone and Lucic won a race to wave off a potential icing. Lucic hit Spooner with a back pass and Spooner fired a shot, which Pastrnak tipped past Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo to tie the score 2-2.

On the winning play, Lucic gained possession in the neutral zone. He gained the zone with four Panthers in position to stop him, but he took a wrist shot that eluded all the bodies in front of him, including Luongo's for the game-winning goal. Even Lucic admitted there was some luck involved in the goal, but there was no luck in the fact that he and his linemates were on the ice at a crucial juncture in the game.

"They played against their second, they played against their third line and that didn't matter to me because I felt in my mind that they could hold their own," Julien said. "They're getting better all the time too, let's not kid ourselves. From the first time that they were together, which was always a real tough matchup for me to make, sure it was really the right situation. Now I'm a little bit more flexible because they are getting better and they are getting more experience and you can utilize them that way. Obviously when you have the last change at home it makes it even easier."

With five games remaining in the regular season, and then potential playoff games beyond April 11, the Bruins ideally would be able to treat all four of their lines equally. When they've had their best success in past seasons, they've done it by wearing teams down and throwing different looks at the opposition with different types of trios. Unfortunately, they're not quite there yet.

"I think it goes back to the D zone. And I think it's just when teams have full possession in our zone, we can't get caught running around in our zone," Lucic said. "We just have to win those battles and make a good strong play and get going in transition. And that's the most important thing when you're in the D zone, and kind of stuck in the D zone, is cutting them off and then making a good play where you can get moving the other way. And it seems like we're not there yet, we're getting hemmed in a little longer than we would like but it's something that we're going to have to get better at if we want to contribute to this team moving forward with five games left and into the playoffs. Because you don't want to restrict Claude from putting you out there just because of that. We've been working on that and it's gone better at times but we want that to be more consistent."

Lucic has been around the Bruins, and championship-caliber teams, long enough to know that D zone play is the foundation that success if built upon. Lucic, Spooner and Pastrnak can't work their magic if they can't get the puck. Against the Panthers, they got the job done. And that will probably result in similar opportunities for them down the road.

There will be less cheerleading for Lucic and more chances to be the hero.

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.

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