Jesper Boqvist, New Third Line Shines Again for Florida Panthers

A few games ago, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice switched up his third line with the hope that it would get Carter Verhaeghe rolling once again.

It has worked.

Anton Lundell has raved about playing with Verhaeghe and, while that means he lost his longtime left wing in Eetu Luostarinen to the second line, things have looked sharp.

Oh, and Jesper Boqvist has been a maniac.

Wednesday night, Boqvist scored twice including one off a nice setup from Verhaeghe and Lundell in Florida’s 4-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club.

Boqvist has four goals and six points since the line change was made.

He also has nine goals this season.

Nice signing, eh?

Might be time to start talking contract extension.

“We have used him on left and right wing, he has played center for us, played with different people,” Maurice said. “He is a really competitive guy, and I think that line with Lundy and Verhaeghe, there is some quickness there on pucks, some jump.

“You like to see the guys who played hard during the first half, and maybe their points weren’t where they would like, get a little reward on the road here and set themselves up for the second half.”

The third line didn’t have anything to do with the Florida’s first goal, that coming on a power-play one-timer from Sam Reinhart off a set play from Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk 1:05 into the second.

Boqvist made it 2-0 by rifling off a feed from Verhaeghe in the high slot 1:48 into the third.

He added an empty-net goal with 2:01 left to ice the win for the Panthers.

“Sometimes they go in, sometimes not,” Boqvist said. “I feel pretty good, feel our line has been working hard and winning a lot of pucks down low. We’re playing with speed. When we have space and room to do stuff, we have been.’’

Sergei Bobrovsky had himself yet another solid game for the Panthers on Wednesday, making 26 saves in his first visit to Salt Lake City.

By beating Utah, Bobrovsky joined Jake Allen and Darcy Kuemper as the only goalies with wins against 33 different franchises.

The Panthers went 1-1 on this two-game road trip to the Rocky Mountains and head home today to face a more familiar foe in the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon.

It is only a quick stop home, however, with Florida playing the Jersey Turnpike back-to-back against the Flyers and Devils starting Monday night.

ON DECK: GAME No. 43

BOSTON BRUINS at FLORIDA PANTHERS

• When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• National TV: ABC
• Streaming: ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• This Season (Panthers Lead 2-0) — At Florida: Panthers 6, Bruins 4 (Oct. 8); Saturday. At Boston: Panthers 4, Bruins 3 (Oct. 14); March 11.
• Last Regular Season: Bruins Won 4-0
• Last Postseason: Panthers Won ECS 4-2
• All-time Regular Season Series: Boston leads 64-39-7, 6 ties
• All-time Postseason Series: Florida leads 3-0 (1996 1st, 2023 1st, 2024 2nd)
• Up Next for the Panthers: Monday at Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m.