The Bruins started the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs incredibly with a 5-1 win in Florida. However, on Friday, May 10th at TD Garden, Boston took their second straight loss. They had been down 4-0, scoring two goals in the final frame and the Florida Panthers took a 6-2 victory to lead in the series. Both Jakub Lauko and Jake DeBrusk scored, and Jeremy Swayman made a total of 27 saves for Boston.
Panthers lineup against the Bruins:
Tarasenko – Barkov – Reinhart
Verhaeghe – Bennett – Tkachuk
Luostarinen – Lundell – Rodrigues
Lorentz – Stenlund – Okposo
Forsling – Ekblad
Mikkola – Montour
Ekman-Larsson – Kulikov
Bobrovsky
Stolarz
Bruins lineup against the Panthers:
Marchand – Coyle – DeBrusk
Zacha – Geekie – Pastrnak
van Riemsdyk – Frederic – Brazeau
Lauko – Beecher – Maroon
Lindholm – McAvoy
Lohrei – Carlo
Forbort – Peeke
Swayman
Ullmark
At 11:56 of the first period, Evan Rodrigues opened the scoring to put the Panthers in a 1-0 lead when he batted the puck out of the air in front of Jeremy Swayman.
Mason Lohrei received a double minor for high-sticking in the middle frame, resulting in Florida extending their lead to 2-0. Vladimir Tarasenko scored on the power play with 3:46 remaining when he sent a wrister from the left circle past Jeremy Swayman. On the same power play, Carter Verhaeghe made it a 3-0 lead for Florida, knocking in Matthew Tkachuk’s centering pass at the net front with 2:46 left in the frame.
Early in the third, Brandon Montour increased the lead to 4-0 at 16:51. He put a one-timer past Jeremy Swayman from the point on a power play. Jakub Lauko scored the first goal for the Bruins to finally get them on the board, cutting it to 4-1 with 14:59 remaining. Lauko scored with a snap shot for his first NHL playoff goal from the left circle. A few minutes after the goal, Jake DeBrusk cut it to 4-2 on a 3-on-1 rush with a wrist shot at the left circle. Sam Reinhart struck the empty net with 1:24 left in regulation, and Evan Rodrigues sent a one-timer on a power play at the left circle for the 6-2 final.
Jake DeBrusk on the loss, game, and series overall: “I thought we played pretty well up until our first penalty. They got some juice from that… saying that, overall, our effort and execution has to be better, obviously. They’re a very good team, and you could see what they do when you kind of take your foot off the gas per se… I don’t think that we’ve been our best throughout this series, and I don’t think they have either… We just got to do what we got to do to defend home ice next game.”
Jeremy Swayman on the 6-2 loss on home ice: “You got to tip your cap to their power play. They have a lot of talented players and they get pucks to the net. So, we can go to the drawing board and look at what we can do better,” – “Being out on the ice, we know that they like to funnel pucks and use a bumper. We could do a better job of everything; of making sure I’m seeing pucks and then blocking shots, you name it. So, we’re looking forward to that and making sure our penalty kill is back.”
Notes:
– Brad Marchand left with an upper-body injury after taking a hit from Sam Bennett in the first period. He played the rest of the first and through the second, however, he didn’t return for the third.
Jim Montgomery had no updates on Marchand after the game, saying they would know more on Saturday.
– Sergei Bobrovsky made 15 saves for Florida, and Brandon Montour recorded both a goal and an assist. Matthew Tkachuk recorded three assists.
Tkachuk’s three-point playoff game had been the third in his career with the Florida Panthers. He tied Carter Verhaeghe for the most in franchise history.
– The Florida Panthers are the eighth team in the past decade with at least six goals in back-to-back playoff games… the first since the New York Rangers in Game 7 of the 2022 second round and Game 1 of the finals.
– After sustaining an upper-body injury on April 23rd, Sam Bennett made his return to the lineup.
