Game 1 Takeaways: Stellar Swayman Leads Bruins to 5-1 Win Against Panthers

Game 1 Takeaways: Stellar Swayman Leads Bruins to 5-1 Win Against Panthers originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Bruins’ success on the road in the Stanley Cup playoffs continued in Game 1 of their second-round series against the Florida Panthers on Monday night.

Just 48 hours later eliminating the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime of Game 7the Bruins went to Sunrise, Florida, and defeated the Panthers 5-1 at Amerant Bank Arena.

After a scoreless but highly entertaining first period, the Panthers got on the board first after taking advantage of a turnover in the Bruins’ zone. But the lead didn’t last long. Morgan Geekie equalized for the B just 67 seconds later. Boston scored twice more in the game with goals from defensemen Mason Lohrei and Brandon Carlo. Those three goals came on the Bruins’ last three shots of the period.

Multiple defensemen scoring in the same game has been a rare occurrence for the B’s this season. It’s only happened twice in 90 games, and not since November 14th.

Justin Brazeau and Jake DeBrusk (empty net) scored for the Bruins in the third period. This offensive outburst, along with Jeremy Swayman’s incredible performance in net (more on that below), propelled the B’s to their third straight Game 1 win dating back to last season.

Game 2 of the series will be Wednesday night in Florida. But before we look at that matchup, here are three takeaways from Bruins-Panthers Game 1.

Jim Montgomery Uses Timeout Perfectly

The Bruins couldn’t have started the third period worse. Hampus Lindholm took a bad penalty, which put the Bruins on the penalty kill. The Panthers nearly scored with the man advantage, but even after the power play ended, they continued to dominate puck possession and had 11 shots on net in the first six minutes of the period.

Bruins coach Jim Mongomery recognized his team was losing focus and wisely called a timeout with 14:12 left in the period. Montgomery left a fiery message for his team, while captain Brad Marchand also expressed his displeasure with the team’s start to the period.

The timeout seemed to calm things down for the Bruins as they began to play much better, and less than two minutes later rookie forward Justin Brazeau increased the lead to 4-1 with a beautiful deke over Sergei Bobrovsky.

Former Bruins forward P.J. Stock loved the timeout Montgomery used when his team was rallying.

Montgomery has made some good decisions in the playoffs so far. His line changes before Game 3 of the first round helped produce two Toronto wins. He gave Lohrei a bigger role. He kept Swayman as the starter, which allowed the young goaltender to build impressive momentum. He too called David Pastrnak before Game 7 against Toronto and the right wing superstar delivered.

Montgomery is pushing the right buttons right now.

Mason Lohrei’s stellar play continues

Rookies typically don’t show the kind of confidence in the playoffs that Lohrei is playing with now. He made his postseason debut in Game 3 against the Leafs and has steadily improved in all three zones with each passing game.

His best performance came on Monday night. He played the puck with poise, knew exactly when to come into play, and did a good job winning possession in puck battles along the boards.

Lohrei gave the Bruins their first lead since Game 4 of the first round when he beat Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky with a perfect, high strike. His first career playoff goal put Boston up 2-1.

Lohrei finished with a goal, an assist, two shots, two shot blocks and four hits in 16:05 of ice time.

Jeremy Swayman gives another great performance

Swayman made his sixth straight start for the first time in his career and put in another fantastic performance. The 25-year-old goalkeeper needed to be good from the start and rose to the occasion with nine saves in the first period.

His best save came on a rebound in the first minute when he shot the right block to keep the game scoreless.

Swayman did a great job preserving Boston’s lead early in the third quarter. The Panthers started the frame super aggressive and fired 11 shots at Swayman in the first six minutes. Despite heavy traffic around the crease, Swayman thwarted all of the Panthers’ scoring chances during that stretch.

Swayman finished with 38 saves on 39 shots. He has yet to allow more than two goals in any of his seven playoff appearances and leads all postseason goaltenders with a .955 save percentage.

Will the Bruins give Swayman his seventh straight start Wednesday in Game 2? Linus Ullmark played very well against the Panthers in the regular season with a 3-0-0 record, a .947 save percentage and a 1.62 GAA.

But there’s no way the Bruins can take Swayman out of the net when he’s been the best goaltender in the entire playoffs. He looked great physically in Game 1 and as long as his stamina remains good, he should continue to play.