Panthers come up short against Boston in series opener, lose 5-1
Game 2 against the Bruins is set for Wednesday night at Amerant Bank Arena
The Florida Panthers are starting their playoff rematch against the Boston Bruins the same way they did during last season’s opening round victory.
With a loss.
Florida scored first, out-shot and out-chanced the Bruins, but timely goals and strong special teams play propelled Boston to a 5-1 win in Game 1 over the Panthers.
The first period came and went without any goals, as both goaltenders – Boston Jeremy Swayman and Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky – came up with several big saves.
By the time the game reached the halfway point, Boston was outshooting Florida 18-17 and leading high-danger shots 8-2.
It would be the Panthers who got on the board first, though.
Florida captain Sasha Barkov stole the puck at the Boston blue line and fed a perfect cross-ice pass Matthew Tkachuk, who collected the puck and wired a wrist shot past the blocker of Swayman.
Just 1:06 later, a Panthers giveaway in their own end eventually led to a loose puck finding the stick of Morgan Geekie with Bobrovsky already down on the ice.
The game wouldn’t stay tied long.
Immediately after the Bruins killed off a too many men penalty, defenseman Mason Lohrei took a shot from the half boards that snuck under the crossbar to give Boston their first lead of the night.
Brandon Carlo, another Bruins blueliner, scored past a screened Bobrovsky in the final minute of the middle frame to give Boston a two-goal advantage heading into the third period.
The Panthers came out determined to claw back into the game, outshooting the Bruins 11-1 over the first 5:48 of the third, leading to Boston Head Coach Jim Montgomery taking the team’s timeout to seemingly settle things down.
It’s a move that worked because Justin Brazeau scored on the very next shift to give the Bruins a commanding 4-1 lead.
Florida didn’t put up much of a fight after that, pulling Bobrovsky with 4:54 to go and giving up an empty netter to Jake DeBrusk a minute or so later.
On to Game 2, Wednesday night in Sunrise.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Game 1 against Boston:
While Florida did kill off the only Bruins power play of the game, the Panthers also went 0-for-3 when on the man advantage.
Tkachuk now has points in all six Panthers playoff games after scoring Florida’s only goal in Game 1. He has four goals and 10 points so far during the postseason.
Barkov now has six points in six playoff games after picking up the primary assist on Tkachuk’s goal.
It was a rough night for Aaron Ekblad, who finished a minus-2 with no shots on one attempt, two giveaways and a hit.
Boston took 15 combined shots in the second and third periods. They scored on five of them.
Bobrovsky finished with 23 saves, including on stops eight of Boston’s nine high danger shots, according to Natural Stat Trick.
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