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Bruins stun Panthers 5-1 in Game 1 of Stanley Cup second-round series
SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers had been off for every week, since eliminating the Lightning within the first spherical of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 5 video games. The Boston Bruins have been nonetheless wiping the sweat off after surviving a seven-game sequence with the Maple Leafs on Saturday.
However the rested group misplaced any momentum it had because the Panthers dropped Sport 1 of their second-round sequence to the Bruins 5-1 on Monday night time. A 3-goal Boston surge late within the second interval was the turning level.
The Panthers briefly held the lead with 8:15 to go within the first interval after a objective from Matthew Tkachuk, however Boston instantly answered again simply over a minute later.
Morgan Geekie first put house a rebound with chaos ensuing in entrance of the online with 7:08 to go within the second. Mason Lohrei then picked the highest left nook with a clear wrist shot with 3:43 left within the second. Brandon Carlo completed off the surge with 20.8 seconds to go along with a shot from the purpose.
“We gave up seven pictures in that interval and so they put three of them in,” Florida coach Paul Maurice stated. “It’s not Sergei [Bobrovksy]. Two of them, we didn’t break the puck out, the third one we acquired beat off the frenzy on a play that ought to’ve been killed pretty simply.”
Justin Brazeau put Boston up 4-1 with a backhand transfer on a breakaway 7:13 into the third interval to place the sport effectively out of attain.
Jake DeBrusk sealed it with an empty netter with 3:22 to go.
“They performed rather well, in order that they didn’t allow us to make these easy performs,” captain Aleksander Barkov stated. “They stayed actually arduous on the pucks, acquired a few turnovers there.”
Listed below are three takeaways from Monday’s recreation:
Panthers have been flat on the ability play
Florida couldn’t get a lot of something happening the ability play, going 0-for-3 and leading to momentum-swinging moments the opposite means.
The Panthers generated seven pictures, 9 scoring possibilities and 4 excessive hazard possibilities, however couldn’t get something previous Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman. And on a number of events, they gave up high-danger possibilities on the opposite finish virtually instantly after.
Lohrei’s eventual game-winning objective got here mere seconds after an unsuccessful energy play, and the Bruins acquired one other probability on a breakaway, which Bobrovsky stopped.
”They’re an excellent PK group, particularly within the playoffs,” Tkachuk stated. “We had a pair appears however we have been in all probability simply too sluggish tonight on the ability play. That’s one thing we gotta work out.”
Florida dug a gap with a number of defensive mishaps
The Panthers couldn’t get out of their very own means at sure factors of the sport.
Aaron Ekblad turned the puck over proper to David Pastrnak on a failed clearing try proper earlier than Boston’s first objective of the sport. One other muffed clearing try by Gustav Forsling led to Lohrei’s objective.
A mix of a heavy Boston forecheck and some sloppy passes dug a gap too deep for the Panthers to claw out of on Monday night time.
“I feel poor execution,” proper wing Kyle Okposo stated when requested what led to the breakdowns. “We acquired to be somewhat bit faster to help one another. They have been on prime of us, they have been skating, they have been shifting and I feel that we’re going to scrub some stuff up and be higher, however give them credit score.”
Jeremy Swayman proves he’s ‘the man’ for Boston
Going into the postseason, the Bruins determined they have been going to deal with their goaltending on a rotational foundation. Linus Ullmark, the 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner, and younger breakout star Swayman would share these duties after every posted stellar common seasons.
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That lasted all of two video games after Ullmark misplaced Sport 2 of the primary spherical and Swayman ran away with the Toronto sequence, going 4-2 with a .950 save proportion and a 1.49 goals-against common.
Swayman proved, as soon as once more, that he’s the man who can carry out in high-pressure conditions, stopping 38 pictures and arising with quite a few high-danger saves to assist steal Sport 1 on the street for the Bruins.
”We’ve to shoot the puck and we now have to get some visitors there,” Okposo stated. “[Swayman] is clearly extraordinarily assured proper now. He simply performed six actually strong video games. Seven should you embrace tonight. So he’s undoubtedly feeling it. I do know we had numerous quantity tonight however I don’t suppose numerous our appears have been harmful so we now have to do a greater job of getting there.”
