Brandon Montour scored twice as a four-goal third period led the visiting Florida Panthers past the Boston Bruins 6-3 in Wednesday’s Game 2 of their Eastern Conference opening-round playoff series.
Montour is the first defenseman in Panthers history to record a multi-goal game in the postseason.
Sam Bennett opened the scoring in his first game since March 20 (groin), while Eric Staal, Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen also found the net for Florida.
Matthew Tkachuk and Nick Cousins had two assists apiece and Alex Lyon made 34 saves to help the Panthers even the best-of-7 series.
Brad Marchand, Tyler Bertuzzi and Taylor Hall scored for Boston, which won the Presidents’ Trophy with an NHL-record 135 points in the regular season.
The Bruins’ Linus Ullmark stopped 24 shots in his second consecutive start.
Boston had a 37-30 advantage in shots.
In a game that featured 60 combined hits and 92 penalty minutes, Boston went 1-for-4 on the power play and Florida 0-for-3.
Montour gave the Panthers their third lead of the game only 22 seconds into the final period, putting home a long-range shot with Aleksander Barkov screening in front.
The advantage reached two for the first time at the 7-iminute mark when Verhaeghe sent Tkachuk’s feed from low on the left circle into the top of the net.
Montour continued the Panthers’ onslaught as his drive from the blue line sailed past Ullmark at 12:30.
Luostarinen added an empty-net strike with 2:25 left before Hall got Boston a goal back with 70 seconds remaining.
Florida played with its first lead of the series 1:42 into the second. A Brandon Carlo turnover led to Tkachuk feeding Bennett, who was free in the slot and sent a shot from in tight through Ullmark’s five-hole.
The Bruins looked to get a spark from a Marchand short-handed goal at 12:13. He intercepted the puck from Anthony Duclair and snapped a straight-on shot over Lyon’s glove for his second goal in as many games.
Marchand’s run of 12 straight regular seasons with at least one short-handed goal had been broken in 2022-23.
It was a 1-1 game for only 2:05 as Staal put the Panthers back ahead by depositing home a feed from Cousins from the high slot at 14:18.
With 2:59 left in the second, Bertuzzi deflected Pavel Zacha’s one-timer home from the net front for a game-tying goal on the power play.
–Field Level Media
