The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers will not be around in June to defend their title, but they refuse to go gently into the night.

A severely hampered Panthers team jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and then leaned on a spectacular Sergei Bobrovsky in the third period to hang on for a 2-1 victory in Sunrise, Fla., on Thursday. Bobrovsky stopped 27 of 28 Bruin shots, including all 14 in the B’s wild third period comeback attempt. Florida swept the season series.

The defeat snapped the B’s four-game win streak as they start their four-game road trip with a loss in what, on paper, looked like their most likely victory.

But as we’ve seen with this team, they can play up to their competition, the B’s too often plays down to it as well.

That was evident in the first period, especially.

The banged-up Panthers entered the game without 11 of their regulars, many of whom (including Brad Marchand) are done for the season.

But that didn’t stop the Cats from giving the usual fits to the B’s when the visitors were trying to break the puck out of their zone.

Florida took the first lead of the game on the first shot of the game at 4:20. Henri Jokiharju had won a puck battle against A.J. Greer behind the net only to have his pass intended for Pavel Zacha picked off by Mackie Samoskevich. To compound his mistake, Jokiharju went to the front of the net where he promptly screened Jeremy Swayman, who could not locate Samoskevich’s shot.

The Panthers made it 2-0 with one of their old Bruin killers doing the damage. A blocked shot went right to Sam Bennett in the slot and he ripped it past Swayman, giving Florida a 2-0 lead at 7:39.

The B’s would get one back in the final minutes of the period. They had the only power play of the period that was unsuccessful but helped them get a little offensive zone time.

With the top line applying heavy pressure, David Pastrnak sent a puck toward the net that hit a couple of Florida skates before it there. Marat Khusnutdinov took a couple of whacks at it before it squirted out to Fraser Minten, who made a nice shift to his forehand to be able to lift it over a prone Bobrovskky with 26.7 seconds left in the period.

The second period started in the same fashion as the first did, with the Panthers winning too many races and battles. Swayman had to made several good saves to keep the deficit at one. Matthew Tkachuk was all alone in front and Swayman made not one but two stops on him. Then he had to flash his right pad to stop Jesper Boqvist on a partial break.

The B’s, outshot 12-5 in the second, did flurry a little bit at the end of the period but not enough to actually challenge Bobrovsky. They still looked at a 2-1 deficit going into the third.

They did on the second shift of the third period, but Bobrovsky was up to the challenge. He stopped three close-range shots, one from Charlie McAvoy and two Grade As from Pastrnak.

While Swayman kept it a one-goal game with a couple of big stops on Bennett, chances were opening up for the B’s but Bobrovsky was on his game. He stoned the snake-bitten Morgan Geekie a couple of times.

Geekie had another great chance with a little over 5:00 remaining in regulation when Elias Lindholm kept the puck in at the blue line and sent it down to a wide-open Geekie but Bobrovsky just got a piece of the shot and it went over the crossbar.

The B’s got a power play with 3:21 left when A.J. Greer tripped Elias Lindholm. Boqvist stole the puck from Pastrnak for a breakaway but Swayman made the stop.

With a few seconds left on the PP, Swayman was pulled for the extra skater. They had numerous chances but could just not pull even.

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