The Boston Bruins are now enjoying more breathing room and are winning the Stanley Cup playoffs in the second round. The Bruins were able to rejoice with unbridled excitement on Saturday night after David Pastrnak’s overtime goal in the seventh game eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Florida crowd was loud and raucous as the national anthem was played. Everyone in the building was singing along loudly and even yelling, showing how enthusiastic they were.
During the song, Boston’s Jeremy Swayman, the goalie, looked around at the fans with a pretty confident grin on his face. It was almost as though he thought they would sit quietly for the remainder of the night.
In Game 1 of their second-round playoff series against the Panthers on Monday night, the Bruins defeated them 5-1. Swayman extended his incredible playoffs brilliance by saving 38 shots. Brandon Carlo’s goal came only hours after his wife gave birth to their kid.
Swayman stated, “I was just so impressed by the way we all didn’t take no.” I’m quite enthusiastic for what’s to come since everything—mental, physical, and all—was so nice to watch.
Boston’s record against the Panthers this season is at 5-0-0 thanks to goals from Mason Lohrei, Jake DeBrusk, Justin Brazeau, and Morgan Geekie. The Bruins, who had trailed 1-0 going into the final 7:08 of the second period, rallied to take the lead and Pavel Zacha had two assists.
Goalie for Boston’s five postseason wins so far, Swayman was excellent again, just as he was in the Round 1 series against Toronto that ended in an exciting Game 7 overtime on Saturday night. He stopped every one of Florida’s seven shots on goal during their three power plays, improving his stats the most of any goaltender in these playoffs thus far.
Swayman has made a league-best 210 saves in seven postseason games, good for a very stingy goals-against average of 1.42.
We were quite careless,” Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery stated. Had it not been for Jeremy Swayman, the game would have been much closer, and they might have won.
The goal for Florida was scored by Matthew Tkachuk. The squad has only twice recovered a 1-0 deficit to win in nine prior NHL playoff series; the most recent instance occurred in Round 1 against Boston last year. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots for the Panthers, who were playing for the first time in a week.
Wednesday night in Sunrise is when the second game is played.
Paul Maurice, coach of the Panthers, commented, “I didn’t like our game.” Furthermore, I believe that most of the issues we had may be resolved.
It was the first one-sided game of the five this season between the two teams who finished 1-2 in the Atlantic Division—Florida first with 110 points, Boston second with 109 points. Florida was either ahead or tied in all three of Boston’s triumphs during the regular season, with one victory coming by a two-goal margin.
This one was distinct. After seizing the lead, the Bruins’ defense was impenetrable. Thus far this season, they have triumphed against 1-0 deficits in four of their five meetings with Florida.
We definitely weren’t as hard on ourselves tonight as we could have been, and we made some mistakes,” Tkachuk said. “They performed admirably.
Midway in the second period, Swayman let up the first goal of the game to Tkachuk, the Florida star’s fourth of the postseason, after he and Bobrovsky engaged in a goalie’s battle for the first thirty-one minutes. He did not dwell on the shortfall for very long.
Boston scored the equalizer in just 67 seconds after Geekie cleared a stray puck in front of him. And 3:25 into the game, Lohrei scored his first goal of the playoffs, shooting over Bobrovsky’s shoulder from a difficult angle to give the lead.
Another hug secured 🫂 pic.twitter.com/9alB6Na6jK
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 7, 2024Carlo was able to add to a day he will never forget because of it.
Rather than heading to South Florida with the Bruins on Sunday, he remained home since his wife Mayson was about to give birth. She gave birth to their son Crew on Monday morning, in time for Carlo to get on a plane and go the three hours south. Even though he got to the arena later than his colleagues, he was already in the lineup. He scored to put his team up 3-1 with 21 seconds left in the second half.
“I definitely wanted to play,” Carlo said, “and I’m very happy I did.”
Brazeau wrapped up the victory with 12:47 left, sidestepping the Florida defenders and nailing Bobrovsky with a backhander. After the Panthers pulled Bobrovsky with 5:30 left, DeBrusk scored an empty-net goal two minutes later.
Two days later, in Sunrise, Florida, the hockey town, the leisurely and unpretentious Bruins upset the highly anticipated Florida Panthers 5-1, leaving their hosts perplexed and trying to figure out how to win Game 2.
The New York Rangers’ victory against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal was not a surprise, despite Boston’s victory over the Panthers. Mika Zibanejad’s two goals and Artemi Panarin’s game-winning shot in the third period helped the Rangers get out to a fast start that forced the visiting Hurricanes to pursue. The Rangers ultimately prevailed 4-3.
Despite their disastrous performance in Game 1, Florida is still a heavy favorite, and Carolina has more than enough weapons to fight back and make this a lengthy series.
The Panthers’ advantage in the second quarter was short-lived as they gave up many defensive opportunities. The most dependable Florida blue liner, defenseman Aaron Ekblad, was the victim of Morgan Geekie’s play on the game-tying goal, which came 67 seconds after aggressive Matthew Tkachuk had opened the score.
Before the second period came to a conclusion, Geekie potted a rebound into goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov’s net, while Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei and Brandon Carlo responded with their own nasty blasts to the upper area of the net. On the Bruins bench, there was happiness, a stark contrast to the gloom and fear that characterized the latter games of the Toronto series, when it appeared like Boston may squander a 3-1 series lead for the second consecutive year.
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