The Florida Panthers survived a rocky first period before going on to bludgeon the Boston Bruins, literally and figuratively, by a 6-1 count at Amerant Bank Arena, thanks in no small part to a statement game from captain Aleksander Barkov, who scored twice, added two assists and was credited with a game-high nine hits.
After Carter Verhaeghe was stuffed by Jeremy Swayman on an early power-play chance, a sizeable portion of the opening frame looked uncomfortably like Game 1.
The Bruins broke through at 12:12 after Brandon Montour’s one-handed attempt to clear bounced off the boards to Pavel Zacha. Zacha fended off Verhaeghe before backhanding to Brad Marchand, who sent the puck under a sliding Niko Mikkola back to Zacha, who went back across the goal mouth to Charlie Coyle, who slammed the puck in to the yawning net.
Paul Maurice wisely switched his lines up soon after and the Panthers would draw even 1:56 into second when Montour collected a turnover by Parker Wotherspoon and sent a tumbling wrist shot towards the goal that an unmarked Steven Lorentz deflected by Swayman. Just the tip, baby!
Florida forged ahead a 9:49 with Barkov getting his first of the night by taking the puck from Aaron Ekblad and then sending a pretty feed to Sam Reinhart in the top of right circle. Barkov went to the front of the net to jam in the rebound after Swayman denied Reinhart, with a stick-less Charlie McAvoy unable to stop him. ♪ Cheer up, Charlie ♪
After Swayman made a couple of late pad saves it looked as if the teams would go to the dressing room with the Cats up a goal until Montour gloved down a clearing attempt following an offensive zone faceoff. Montour’s initial shot went wide, coming off the back boards to Anton Lundell, who was able to send back to the opposite point to Gustav Forsling. Forsling beat the buzzer with a heavy blast that screamed by a screened Swayman with less than a second left on the clock, doubling the lead much to the delight of the partisan crowd.
The Panthers would get another 1:28 into the third, taking advantage of a waived off icing to send Swayman to the bench for the rest of the night. Barkov forced Brandon Carlo to gag up to Reinhart and his shot from in tight hit the cross bar. Reinhart collected his rebound behind the net, passed out to Barkov, and he set up Eetu Luostarinen back door for his first of the playoffs. Luostarinen had a wide-open net, but needed a little luck as he instead shot into Swayman and got the bounce.
Barkov would notch Florida’s first power-play goal against the Bruins this season at 10:52, taking a quick return pass from Reinhart, following a Boston turnover at the blue line, and solving Linus Ullmark with a pinpoint wrister from between the circles.
With the game deteriorating into a misconduct-fest, the Cats tacked on a shorthanded goal 1:06 later. After taking a pass from Reinhart, Montour dished to his left to Barkov and worked his way the net. Barkov had a ton of space to skate into and eventually got the puck in front where Montour chipped it in.
Four more misconducts were handed out following the goal, and then Matthew Tkachuk beat up David Pastrnak 44 seconds after that, leading to both high-scoring wingers getting tossed.
What a Game 2 response from the Panthers, who absolutely dominated the final forty minutes to blow out the visiting Bruins, scoring six consecutive postseason goals for the first time in franchise history. Not sure of the exact amount of time, but Boston went something like 15 minutes during a stretch encompassing chunks of the second and third period without getting a shot on Sergei Bobrovksy, who only had to make 14 saves. Four points from Barkov, four assists for Reinhart, and a three-point performance from Montour… yes, please! Game 3 is Friday night at TD Garden.
Tea & Honey
- That was the playoff game we’ve been waiting for from First Star Aleksander Barkov. In addition to racking up four points, Barkov had four shots, two takeaways, and won 8-of-11 faceoffs. The Cats led the Bruins 9-2 in scoring chances when Barkov was on the ice.
- After going without a helper in the first six games of the postseason, Sam Reinhart set a new franchise record with four assists.
- The Panthers outhit Boston 76-70. Florida’s feisty fourth line of Steven Lorentz, Nick Cousins and Kyle Okposo accounted for 15 of that total.
- After looking virtually impenetrable in Game 1, Jeremy Swayman gave up four goals on 23 shots. Linus Ullmark made eight saves on ten shots in relief.
- Matthew Tkachuk was held without a point for the first time in the playoffs. He did block a shot and finished with three hits,15 PIM and a plus-one rating in 17:59 TOI.
- The zebras were busy, handing out misconduct penalties to thirteen different players in the final frame. The teams combined for a whopping 148 penalty minutes.