BOSTON– Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice considered it a good omen when the fire alarm went off at the team’s hotel Friday afternoon as he was getting ready for a pregame nap.
“In my career, the number of times something has gone wrong at the hotel…it’s like a guaranteed win,” Maurice said after a 2-1 victory over Boston earned the Panthers a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals. “I said, ‘If that’s true, I guarantee we’re winning today.’”
Maurice’s superstition held true a few hours later, when defenseman Gustav Forsling scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:33 left, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 shots to help the Panthers beat the Bruins 2-1 and secure their series. of playoffs in the second round in six games.
A year after playing for the Stanley Cup, the Panthers will face the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Maurice may have been deprived of a nap on Friday, but his team has five days to prepare for Game 1 against the Rangers on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
“I’m not doing that. I’m not going to do anything with it,” he said. “I need a day off.”
Anton Lundell scored for the Panthers and also set up the winning goal when his shot was deflected into the left side of the net. Forsling came in and beat Jeremy Swayman on the short side.
“I didn’t see it happen. I only saw one other person react. It was incredible,” said Forsling, who scored 10 goals this season – one of them game-winning. “I’m not normally the guy who scores the winning goal; to help your team win, but I’m going to stay on defense.”
Florida has won all three games of this series in Boston and six straight playoff games at TD Garden. The Panthers also knocked off the playoff-record Bruins last year en route to the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
“They had such a great year last year,” Maurice said. “This series felt very different to last year. I think we’re a much better team than we were last year when we got here.”
Swayman stopped 26 shots for the Bruins. Pavel Zacha scored to give Boston a 1-0 lead late in the first period, but they were unable to beat Bobrovsky again. In the series, the Panthers outscored the Bruins 198-135.
“You can’t win every game 2-1,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “Their goalkeeper was good and we didn’t beat him.”
The Bruins brought captain Brad Marchand back after he missed two games with an injury believed to be a concussion. The oldest member of the list was applauded at presentations; Montgomery said this helped propel Boston to a better start than previous games, where he saw the Panthers with a lopsided shooting advantage early on.
“That ovation at the start of the game says it all,” he said. “I thought it would be our night before the game. I thought our players were loose and confident. They came out and played that way.”
Boston took the lead with a minute left in the first period when Jake DeBrusk made an indirect pass to Zacha, sending him into a breakaway. Brandon Carlo also helped by crushing Carter Verhaeghe at the blue line to stop him from chasing the puck.
But Florida tied it with seven minutes left in the second after a scramble in front of the Boston net that left DeBrusk on the ice. Lundell dove into the slot and passed the puck past Swayman.
MANY MEN
The Bruins were called out for having too many men on the ice for the seventh time this postseason. The smaller bench early in the second period did not result in a goal for the Panthers.
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AP NHL Playoffs: and
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