SUNRISE, Fla. -- Already off to their best start in decades, the Boston Bruins maintained the pace in a 4-1 victory over the Florida Panthers Sunday afternoon in front of 18,108 at the BB&T Center.

With just one matchup remaining on their season-long five-game roadtrip, the Bruins (11-2-2) improved to 7-1-1 away from TD Garden. They came into Sunday's game with the organization's best road start since 2010 and best overall start since 1976.

One of the main reasons for the early success lies in the team's penalty kill. Boston has kept opponents off the scoreboard in 21 straight power plays over the past seven-plus games, including a key four-minute sequence at the end of the second and start of the third. The Bruins lead the league with a 94.8 percent proficiency.

"That's something that we're trying to thrive on all year and we're doing that night in and night out so far," left winger Daniel Paille said. "One thing we want to do is not take it for granted. We're being patient and positioned well. The rest of the year should be all right if we play like that."

The Bruins took a 1-0 lead on left winger Milan Lucic's snap shot that beat goaltender Jacob Markstrom's stick side 7:57 into the first period. Center David Krejci set up Lucic's fourth goal of the season by winning the face-off in the Florida zone.

Nifty stick work from defenseman Zdeno Chara, who handled a pass from left winger Brad Marchand in front of the blue line, gave Boston a 2-0 advantage with 6:08 left in the period. Chara spun around a defenseman and faked another Panthers player before backhanding the puck top shelf for his third goal of the year. Center Tyler Seguin also recorded an assist on the play.

"It just happened, basically," Chara said. "You can't plan that kind of goal or moments. My game is simple, and that's not my priority. I was glad we got the lead with that goal."

Florida (5-9-4) trimmed the deficit to 2-1 less than two minutes later on right winger Tomas Kopecky's fifth goal of the season. Left winger Tomas Fleischmann passed to center Drew Shore, whose shot rebounded back to him. Kopecky then gathered Shore's feed that sat between defenseman Andrew Ference's legs and found an opening on the left side of the net.

Earlier in the period, the same line couldn't capitalize on a scoring opportunity. Center Jonathan Huberdeau passed to Kopecky, who took a shot that lingered near the back post and didn't cross the goal line. Shore was unable to put it in.

"I think we had a really good opportunity to win this game and I really believed in our team, but they got up 2-0 in the first and worked from there," said Markstrom, who earned his second consecutive start and made 28 saves. "We could have had a couple more goals, but it's a tough break right now."