BOSTON — The Florida Panthers took advantage of the power play, scoring twice on a Bruins double-minor — and four goals total with the man advantage — to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe scored within 1 minute of each other on the same power play, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 14 shots to lead the Panthers to a 6-2 victory over the Bruins on Friday night. It was Florida’s second straight six-goal game, helped by Mason Lohrei’s high stick that hit Panthers forward Steven Lorentz in the face and drew blood.
“This was a great opportunity for us. And we knew that and we capitalized,” said Florida center Sam Bennett, who returned after missing four games with an undisclosed injury. “Power-play goals in the playoffs can be hard to come by sometimes. Our power play did a great job of pressing and scoring two very important goals in an important part of the game.
Power-play goals have been especially difficult to come by against Boston, which killed 27 of its first 28 penalties in this year’s postseason. The Panthers have scored on five of their last seven power play opportunities in the series.
“I’ve been a lot more optimistic about our power play than the stats — or at least the goals — show,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “It’s easy now to say, ‘Well, it’s just a matter of time.’ But if you keep doing the right things over and over again, you’ll have a good night. And I think we saved that.
Evan Rodrigues scored twice, and Brandon Montour also connected for the Panthers, who won back-to-back games after giving up the opener at home. A 6-1 winner on Wednesday night, Florida scored 10 straight goals before Jakub Lauko made it 4-1 early in the third and Jake DeBrusk followed with 11:31 left to make it a two-goal game.
But Boston, who played the final 20 minutes without captain and leading scorer Brad Marchand, couldn’t get any closer before Sam Reinhart scored an empty net goal with 1:24 left. Rodrigues scored again – Florida’s fourth power play goal of the game – in the final minute.
Now the Bruins need a home win on Sunday night to avoid a 3-1 deficit heading back to Florida for Game 5.
“Florida was good. We were not. We move on to the next game,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who will have to decide whether to turn to Linus Ullmark, who alternated with Jeremy Swayman for most of the season before Boston dropped the rotation in the playoffs. “It’s too early to be able to talk about changes.”
Swayman stopped 27 shots for Boston, which was outscored 13-3 in the first period and 33-16 overall. Things got worse when Marchand, who appeared to be struggling after a hit by Bennett in the first period, did not return for the third period.
But that ended up being the Bruins’ only competitive period.
“I thought we recovered because of our captain,” Montgomery said. “I thought (David Pastrnak) and Charlie McEvoy did a great job with him not being on the bench. I thought all of our players stepped up and we competed like Brad Marchand would.”
After splitting the first two home games, the Panthers made it 1-0 in the eighth minute when Rodrigues hit a puck in the air past Swayman. It stayed that way until Lohrei hit Lorentz in the mouth with his bat late in the second.
With 23 seconds left in the first half of the penalty, Tarasenko beat Swayman with a wrist shot from the left circle — assisted by Sam Bennett, who returned to the lineup for the first time since Game 2 of the first-round series against Tampa Bay. Verhaeghe scored a minute later to make it 3-0.
At the beginning of the third, Lauko was sent off for disturbing the goalkeeper. The Bruins chanted that he was pushed into Bobrovsky by Aaron Ekblad, and fans threw water bottles and towels onto the ice, delaying the game for a few minutes.
But when the debris was removed, Montour scored to give Florida a 4-0 lead.
