Florida chased Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman while scoring multiple goals on special teams

The Florida Panthers looked much more like themselves on Wednesday night in Sunrise.

Florida needed a big win after dropping Game 1 of their best-of-7 series with the Boston Bruins, and they got exactly that.

Strong efforts across the lineup led to the Panthers picking up a 6-1 victory over Boston, evening their second-round matchup at one game apiece.

Both teams were given opportunities on the power play in the game’s early stages, but neither could convert.

Boston eventually opened the scoring after capitalizing on a Panthers turnover at their own blueline.

A pretty passing play by the Bruins top line ended with Charlie Coyle slamming the puck into a wide-open net to put Boston up 1-0 at the 12:12 mark.

Not long after that, Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice made some changes on his top three forward lines, putting Vladimir Tarasenko and Sam Reinhart with Sasha Barkov and Anton Lundell between Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk, with Kevin Stenlund flanked by Eetu Luostarinen and Evan Rodrigues.

Interestingly, the only line Maurice didn’t mess with was Florida’s fourth line, which looked good in Game 1 and stayed that way on Wednesday.

It was less than two minutes into the second period when the Panthers finally broke through, and it was the fourth line that did it.

Steven Lorentz deflected a Brandon Montour point shot past Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman to tie the game at the 1:58 mark.

Another strong shift by the fourth line a few minutes later bogged Boston down in their own end, allowing Florida to send out the Barkov line on the fly, and the captain popped home a Reinhart rebound to give the Panthers their first lead of the game.

It appeared Florida would be taking that one-goal lead into the second intermission, but Gus Forsling cracked a 92.8 miles per hour slapshot past a screened Swayman to put Florida up 3-1 with under a second left on the clock.

Less than 90 seconds into the third, Florida struck again.

A turnover forced by Barkov below the Boston goal line led to a few quick passes and a goal by Luostarinen, giving Florida a 4-1 lead and chasing Swayman from the net.

Barkov and Montour scored a power play goal and a shorthanded goal just over a minute apart midway through the period to put the Panthers up by five, but what really highlighted much of the third period was the pushing and shoving that came after seemingly every whistle.

Officials handed out twelve misconducts during the final frame. Game 3 should be a good one.

On to Boston.

Here are some thoughts and observations from Game 2 against Boston:

Florida allowed seven five-on-five goals in five games against Tampa. Boston scored four in Game 1 and another in Game 2.

On their 20th power play against Boston, between the regular season and playoffs, the Panthers finally cashed in with a PPG.

Montour logged a goal and pair of assists, his second multi-point effort of the playoffs.

This was the first time in eight playoff starts that Swayman surrendered three or more goals.

It was a four-point night for Barkov, one that included a power play goal and a shorthanded assist.

Florida set a new franchise record for hits in a game with 76. Boston finished with 70.

Barkov is now riding a three-game points streak in which he’s racked up four goals and eight points.

Lundell now has assists in five of his past six playoff games.

After going pointless in two straight, Reinhart finished with four assists, three of which came during the third period. 

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