The Bruins will head to Boston with the Eastern Conference semifinals tied at one game apiece after the Florida Panthers earned a 6-1 win in Game 2 on Wednesday night.
The game featured 12 misconducts (seven Bruins, five Panthers) in what ended up being a sloppy and undisciplined game by the Bruins after a strong opening 20 minutes.
Jeremy Swayman, who made his seventh consecutive start for the Bruins, allowed more than two goals for the first time throughout the playoffs. After allowing the fourth goal of the night, Jim Montgomery went to Linus Ullmark to finish out the third period.
Not capitalizing on several first period opportunities, defensive zone breakdowns, Boston failing to clear the puck out of its zone and a rough game from Charlie McAvoy didn’t help Swayman, but the visitors could only muster one goal after potting five in Game 1.
A physical, fast-paced first period had the Bruins throwing their weight around on a tough Panthers team. Despite going on the power play 17 seconds into the game, Florida was unable to take an early lead. The Bruins also couldn’t convert on their man-advantage two minutes later.
Charlie Coyle finally broke through with his first goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs thanks to some nice stick work and passing between Pavel Zacha and Marchand to beat Sergei Bobrovsky and give the Bruins a 1-0 lead at the 12:12 mark.
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The Panthers held the 7-6 edge in shots, but Boston went into the first intermission up a goal.
It was a different Bruins team in the second with the team not being able to clear the puck, breaking down in the defensive zone and playing sloppier than in the first.
The Panthers quickly responded in the second period and saw their opportunity to capitalize when Derek Forbort was late getting to the front of net, leaving Steven Lorentz all alone to score the equalizer just 1:56 into the middle frame.
Florida took its first lead of the night when McAvoy lost his stick and Aleksander Barkov beat the Bruins defenseman to the Sam Reinhart rebound, got the puck past Swayman and gave the Panthers a 2-1 edge about halfway through the second.
Some insurance was added with 0.3 seconds left when Gus Forsling made it 3-1 with help from a McAvoy screen on his own goalie.
A quick third period goal after a McAvoy turnover led to Eetu Luostarinen blowing the game open 1:28 into the third period, which forced Montgomery to pull Swayman and go to Ullmark. Montgomery was seen talking to Swayman before he went down the tunnel.
The sloppiness continued when Barkov scored his second goal of the game — this time on the power play — with a shot over Ullmark’s blocker to make it 5-1.
Tempers started to flare with both teams getting into it behind Florida’s net with three Bruins and one Panther receiving game misconducts.
The Bruins got another power play, but it didn’t do them any good as Brandon Montour scored a shorthanded goal that gave the Panthers a 6-1 lead.
More tempers flared and more misconducts were given out before the final horn sounded and the Panthers ultimately tied the series 1-1. Game 3 is set for Friday night at TD Garden.
