Photo: Bridget Samuels/Ikeastan Hockey

The Bruins can now head back up to Boston and enjoy a Thanksgiving day with a big “W” under their belt.

Boston played catch-up once again tonight, scoring three third period goals to defeat the Florida Panthers 3-1

• The B’s have now improved to 12-6-2, 26 points, and 8-2-0 on the road
• Brad Marchand got things going at 0:08 into the third, scoring his third of the season and his second on the shorthand
• Mark Recchi netted the last two Bruins’ goals, one being the game-winner, while pocketing his 1,500th career point in his Hall of Fame career
• Tim Thomas came up big all night, stopping 31-of-32 Florida shots en route to his 11th win of the season, while remaining atop the NHL leaderboard in goals-against average and save-percentage
• Head coach Claude Julien shuffled the lines a bit in the third perio, providing that small spark that the team needed to skate past Florida tonight — Krejci went back to centering Wheeler and Ryder; Bergeron was in the middle of Lucic and Horton; Campbell jumped up to skate with Caron and Recchi; while Seguin spent some time with Marchand and Thornton
• Speaking of line changes: after scoring just two for their previous 26 times on the power play, that’s all they needed — Julien rolled with the line (below) on the 5-on-3 when Recchi put the B’s up 2-1.

Lucic—Krejci—Recchi
Bergeron—Chara

• Lucic, Horton, and Recchi each had team-highs with four shots on goal a piece
• Boston outshot Florida 37-32 tonight, including 18-8 in the final frame
• The Black and Gold killed-off all two times shorthanded tonight, now having killed 24 of their last 25 times short
• Boston hosts the Carolina Hurricanes at the TD Garden at noon on Friday, and are schedule for eight games over the next 15 days