The Florida Panthers managed to avoid elimination in the Stanley Cup playoffs on Wednesday night with a 4-3 overtime victory against the Boston Bruins. Matthew Tkachuk scored the winning goal at 6:05 in overtime, giving new life to the Panthers. The team had fallen behind 1-3 in the best-of-seven series after losing two consecutive games at home. Tkachuk had two points in the win and said: “We were supposed to get swept this series, right? Everyone was saying. I don’t think anybody really gave us a chance after losing two games in a row at home. Coming here, it just seemed like the series was over before the game even started.”
Boston Bruins Fail to Close Out Series
Boston entered the postseason as the top seed in the Eastern Conference, having set new NHL records for wins (65) and points (135) in a single season. Florida was the second wild-card team in the East. The Bruins failed to close out the series due to a few uncharacteristic miscues, including on the game-winning goal in overtime. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said: “I thought we had really good offensive zone pressure. We tried to move the puck over to the defenseman, but we had made a change, so the puck went all the way down. We just had a mishandle on our goalie/defenseman communication on the puck and it ended up getting jacked into our net.”
Florida Panthers Take the Lead
The Panthers took the lead at 8:26 of the first period on another uncharacteristic turnover by Boston. Forward Tyler Bertuzzi sent the puck in front of his own net, where it was intercepted by Carter Verhaeghe. He sent a pass from behind the goal line to a cutting Anthony Duclair, who smacked it down to the ice and into the net. The Bruins tied the game on the power play at 2:27 of the second period, but with 1:08 left in the second period, Verhaeghe found Sam Bennett in the slot for his third goal of the playoffs, putting the Panthers back in the lead.
Back and Forth in the Third Period
The Bruins came back to tie the game in the third period with a power-play goal from Patrice Bergeron, who had missed the first four games of the series due to an injury. However, Sam Reinhart responded just 41 seconds later with a power-play goal of his own to make it 3-2. The Bruins then took the lead thanks to another strong play by Taylor Hall. But the Panthers managed to tie the game with less than four minutes remaining in regulation, sending the game to overtime.
Game 6 on Friday Night
The Panthers’ win means that Game 6 will take place on Friday night. Boston will need to regroup and try to close out the series, while Florida will be looking to force a Game 7. With the series now at 3-2 in favor of Boston, the Panthers will need to continue their momentum and avoid any more uncharacteristic miscues in order to stay alive in the playoffs.
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