The Boston Bruins lost 6-1 to the Florida Panthers Wednesday night at Amerant Bank Arena, tying the second-round series 1-1.

Jeremy Swayman skated to the bench while Linus Ullmark stretched.

Jim Montgomery grabbed the goaltender – who has started in eight of the Boston Bruins’ nine playoff games – and gave him a message before he headed down the tunnel.

“The workload hasn’t played into Jeremy Swayman, the workload played into our effort tonight. We didn’t have juice tonight,” Montgomery said Wednesday to the media. “Swayman was terrific.”

Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 2 at Amerant Bank Arena was not due to lack of sufficient netminding. The Bruins abandoned their defensive structure, were undisciplined and generated limited scoring chances through a 60 minutes in which they were wholly outplayed.

Swayman got pulled after Eetu Luostarinen burst into the third period and gave the Panthers a 4-1 lead less than two minutes into the stanza. Other than showing some bite in after-the-whistle scrums, Boston was unable to regain any momentum through the final buzzer. Giving up a short-handed goal to close out the scoring did not help.

Things spiraled out of control in the final frame. David Pastrnak fought Matthew Tkachuk. A cumulative 12 game misconducts were handed out. There were a total 146 hits thrown in the matchup. A fiery stage has been set for Game 3.

“What I’m really proud of, I’m proud of ‘Pasta,’” Montgomery said. “That’s what you like. You like your hockey players to be competitors.”

Charlie Coyle put the Bruins up 1-0 in the first period with his first goal of the playoffs. The center’s strong forecheck kept the puck in the offensive zone before a tic-tac-toe play with Brad Marchand and Pavel Zacha unfolded. Marchand leapt over Niko Mikkola and pushed the rubber over to Zacha who hit Coyle with a cross-crease pass to knock past Sergei Bobrovsky at 12:12.

Zacha – who logged just two points through seven games in the first round – picked up his third assist in two games on the play.

Florida tied things 1-1 at the beginning of the second period thanks to Steven Lorentz who was left all alone in front of the net after Derek Forbort went to the corner. Brandon Montour ripped a shot from the point which Lorentz cleanly tipped past Swayman at 1:56.

Aleksander Barkov earned the Panthers their first lead of the series with a rebound goal at 9:49. The captain pushed around Charlie McAvoy in the crease and knocked home the loose puck to make it 2-1. Gustav Forsling’s slapshot with one second remaining in the middle frame extended Florida’s advantage to 3-1. It was a back-breaker.

“They get a lot of momentum off the forecheck and zone time. Definitely some areas we need to clean up along the boards to help us out,” Marchand said. “Have to reset and get ready for the next one, that’s what we’ll do.”

In a third period where the Bruins needed to come out flying, they instead continued to succumb to the Panthers’ O-zone pressure. Luostarinen scored from the right doorstep after Brandon Carlo was beat off the puck behind the net and gave Florida a 4-1 lift at 1:28. Barkov’s second of the night came at 10:52 before Montour cashed in while short-handed to bring the contest to its final 6-1 score at 11:58.

The series – now tied 1-1 – will swing to Boston Friday night as the Bruins host the Panthers for Game 3 at TD Garden with a 7 p.m. puck drop.

“We have so much belief in this room, so much confidence in this room,” Swayman said Wednesday to the media. “To see the way that we responded – never going to back down. There’s so much to be excited for when it comes Friday.” 

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