Florida's 4-3 overtime win forces a Game 6 on Friday night in Sunrise
The Florida Panthers will head back to South Florida with another game to play.
They entered Wednesday night’s Game 5 in Boston facing elimination, with the Bruins ahead in the best-of-7 series three games to one.
All the Panthers did was win for the second time in three games in the toughest building for opposing teams to play this season.
Matthew Tkachuk scored 6:05 into overtime to send the series back to South Florida, capping off a Rocky-like performance where the Panthers took punch after punch but refused to go to the mat.
A game dominated by Boston across the board in terms of even strength advanced metrics ended with Tkachuk and his teammates celebrated at center ice of TD Garden.
“Things happen fast in the playoffs,” Tkachuk said. “Now they’ve got to come down to Florida for another one.”
Now the Cats will get another crack at defeating the Bruins in South Florida after dropping both Game 3 and 4 last week.
Other than Tkachuk, the hero of the game for the Panthers was their goaltender.
Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice made the controversial move to start Sergei Bobrovsky for the second straight game following the loss in Game 4 and keep Alex Lyon, the tendy whose hot streak was the reason the Panthers were in the playoffs in the first place, on the bench.
Bobrovsky rewarded Maurice with one of his best games in a Florida sweater, making 44 saves, including a breakaway stop on Brad Marchand as time expired in the third period of a tie game.
It would’ve been an amazing way for a team to clinch a series, and a heartbreaking ending to the club on the losing side.
Believe it or not, Maurice may have been the calmest guy on Florida’s bench as Marchand moved in on Bobrovsky.
“I knew it wasn’t going in,” Maurice said after the game.
He went on to say the decision to start Bob came down to trusting his team’s leadership. Bobrovsky is someone Florida has leaned on all year, and he earned the right to take the ice with the season on the line.
“The leaders carry the weight of your team,” Maurice said. “He needed to carry that weight, and he was brilliant.”
FIRST PERIOD
Less than a minute into the game, Bobrovsky was called upon to make a big save on Charlie Coyle after he danced around Aaron Ekblad and by Gus Forsling to get to the net.
Not long after, Jakob Lauko and Tomas Nosek found themselves alone in front of Bobrovsky, but again the Panthers goaltender came up with the stop, robbing Nosek after a nice backdoor pass by Lauko.
Colin White was called for a slash at the 5:01 mark, putting Florida a man down early in the game, but the Cats were able to kill off the penalty and avoid falling behind.
Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett got some offensive zone time on the shift following the penalty kill, but Boston goalie Linus Ullmark, like Bobrovsky, stood equal to the task.
A bad giveaway by Tyler Bertuzzi led to Florida’s first first period goal of the series.
Just as Sasha Barkov was closing in for a hit along the boards, Bertuzzi sent the puck across the ice and right in front of Boston’s net, which just happened to be the direction where Verhaeghe was gliding.
Florida’s speedy winger took the puck behind the net and slyly sent it back to the slot while Ullmark turned himself the wrong way.
With Ullmark down, Anthony Duclair snuck in and knocked the puck out of midair, sending it bouncing through the legs of a couple Bruins’ defenders and into the yawning cage to put the Panthers ahead 1-0.
Both goaltenders would continue to stand tall but neither team could break through for the rest of period.
For the first time this series, Florida took a lead into an intermission.
SECOND PERIOD
Boston jumped all over the Panthers from the moment the second period began.
A great opening shift was extended when Dmitry Orlov hit Tkachuk from behind as the puck drew closer, but the check allowed Boston to keep the puck in the zone.
Moments later Bennett was called for holding, giving the Bruins their second power play of the game.
This time they would capitalize, and it would be Marchand once again.
His fourth goal of the series came on his own rebound. Marchand got free in the left circle and fired a shot that Bob stopped, but it squeaked between his arm and body and dropped loose behind him.
Marchand was already driving the net, and he beat Marc Staal, who was standing in the crease covering Bertuzzi, poking the puck across the goal line.
The Bruins continued to control the pace of the game, but Bobrovsky stood tall in goal for the Cats.
A great late period shift by the Barkov line fueled a sequence that ended with the puck in Boston’s net.
It started with a faceoff win by Barkov after the Bruins iced the puck, and his line went to work, with Anthony Duclair and Brandon Montour both getting shot attempts toward Ullmark.
The Bennett line then came over the boards and continued to pressure Boston.
Verhaeghe got the puck on net and chased the rebound into the corner, following it up the boards and absorbing a check by Charlie Coyle.
Nick Cousins, skating on the Bennett line, then poked the puck off the wall. Verhaeghe jumped on it, making a quick backhand forehand move before feeding Bennett between the circles.
Bennett corralled the puck, turned his wrists over and wired a nasty wrist shot over the glove of Ullmark.
Boston may have been the better team during the second period, but it was the Panthers taking a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
THIRD PERIOD
The Bruins came out in the third period similarly to how they started the second, jumping all over the Panthers and bogging them down deep in their end.
Bobrovsky was called upon to make six saves in just over three minutes to open the final frame, and he answered the bell each time.
The sustained pressure did the expected thing and led to a Florida penalty, as Ekblad was called for tripping to the side of Bobrovsky’s net. It was the second straight penalty taken by Ekblad.
It took all of five seconds for Boston to score, with Bergeron tipping home a Marchand shot-pass that came right after the Bruins won the faceoff.
Off the ensuing center ice draw, Lauko was called for taking down Tkachuk, giving Florida its own power play, and boy would they take advantage.
Some of the Panthers best puck movement while up a man led to a pair of opportunities for Reinhart in the slot.
The first time he the puck went off the heel of his blade and wide of Ullmark’s blocker, but the second time he shot a laser over the goaltender’s glove to put Florida back in front.
It took just 41 seconds for the teams to trade power play goals.
Taylor Hall, who had a great game for Boston, tied the game just over four minutes later.
A shot from the point by Brandon Carlo hit Marc Staal in front of Florida’s net just as Montour and David Pastrnak knocked each other down in the slot.
Hall found the loose puck, took a quick stride away from the scrum and scored on a shot that went over Bobrovsky’s shoulder.
Boston continued to dominate in all areas, but it was another unforced error that nearly did the Panthers in.
A too many men on the ice penalty with 3:35 to go would test Florida’s PK, but the unit stood strong, holding the Bruins to just one outside shot.
Before the game could reach the end of regulation, Bobrovsky had to come up with a massive right pad save on Marchand, who got loose on a breakaway as time was expiring.
The shot would’ve counted but Bobrovsky made the stop, sending the series to its first overtime finish.
OVERTIME
It only took about six minutes of bonus hockey for the game to find its winner.
A back-and-forth overtime session ended with a bad goaltending snafu by Ullmark.
Playing the puck behind his net, Ullmark flipped it to the corner and a waiting Verhaeghe, who tried banking the puck off the goaltender as he scurried back to the net.
The puck hit Ullmark and carried into the slot, where Tkachuk was streaking toward the net.
He picked up the puck on his forehand, took it to his backhand, and when it settled, fired it into a wide-open net.
See you Friday in Sunrise.
GAME NOTES
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