Sunrise, FL. – Florida Panthers were served a cold piece of humble pie.
Jeremy Swayman’s brilliant postseason continued by stopping 38 shots, Brandon Carlo scored a goal just a few hours after his wife gave birth to their son and the Bruins topped the Panthers 5-1 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Monday night.
“They played well,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said of the Bruins. “Just come back tomorrow ready to go and look at it all over and try to figure out how we can be better.”
The Bruins led 26-11 in blocked shots.
“We weren’t great tonight,” the Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said very matter-of-factly. “I don’t know that the game was exactly like the score, but it doesn’t really matter. They played well. They looked like they were in a bit of a rhythm. I thought they played a very patient game.”
Morgan Geekie, Mason Lohrei, Justin Brazeau and Jake DeBrusk also had goals for Boston, which improved to 5-0-0 against the Panthers this season. Pavel Zacha had a pair of assists for the Bruins, who scored three times in the final 7:08 of the second period to erase a 1-0 deficit and seize control.
“I was just so impressed by the way all of us didn’t take no for an answer,” Swayman said. “The physicality, the mental and everything was so good to see and I’m really excited for what’s to come.”
Swayman has been in net for all five of Boston’s wins so far in these playoffs and was stellar yet again — just as he was against Toronto in a Round 1 series that ended with a Game 7 overtime thriller on Saturday night. He stopped all seven shots he saw on Florida’s three power plays, improving the best stats of any netminder so far in these playoffs.
Matthew Tkachuk had the goal for Florida, which has rallied from a 1-0 deficit to win an NHL playoff series only twice in nine previous opportunities — one of those was last year against Boston in Round 1. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots for the Panthers, who were playing for the first time in a week.
Game 2 is in Sunrise on Wednesday night
Photo/BostonBruins/X
