Linus Ullmark made 29 saves as the top-seeded Boston Bruins defeated the host Florida Panthers 4-2 in a first-round playoff series on Friday night at Sunrise, Fla.
The Bruins, who got goals from Taylor Hall, Charlie Coyle, David Pastrnak and Nick Foligno, lead the best-of-seven series, 2-1. Game 4 is set for Sunday afternoon in Sunrise.
Florida managed two goals in the final five minutes — by Gustav Forsling and Sam Reinhart.
Boston, which set NHL records in the regular season for most wins (65) and points (135), took a rare defeat on Wednesday, losing 6-3 to Florida.
After that game, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said he would consider “changes everywhere”, and he kept to his word. He benched defenseman Connor Clifton in favor of Matt Grzelcyk. In fact, the Bruins shuffled every defensive pairing and every forward line.
The Bruins were again without captain Patrice Bergeron. In addition, David Krejci was a late scratch. Both of them have upper-body injuries.
After all that shuffling, the Bruins responded with a dominant effort, killing two Florida power plays and leaving Florida with few good looks at the net.
Aaron Ekblad, a key Panthers defenseman, left the game due to an unspecified injury.
Panthers goalie Alex Lyon made 23 saves but was pulled with 11:28 left in the third, right after Pastrnak’s goal made it 3-0.
The Panthers brought in former starter Sergei Bobrovsky, who hadn’t played since March 27, initially due to injury and then to the inspired play by Lyon, a 30-year-old career minor-leaguer.
Boston opened the scoring 2:26 into the first period as Hall used Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour as a screen before firing the puck in off the top of Lyon’s glove. Dmitry Orlov earned the assist, running his playoff points streak to all three games so far this season.
The Bruins made it 2-0 with 6:00 gone in the second as Coyle deflected a shot by Brad Marchand. Coyle fought off Florida’s Aleksander Barkov in an intense battle in front of the net and then batted the puck down and in past Lyon.
Boston extended its lead to 3-0 with 11:28 remaining in the third as Orlov’s stretch pass connected with Pastrnak on the fly. Pastrnak raced in on the breakaway, beating Lyon five-hole.
Foligno’s goal with 8:15 left made it 4-0 as he took a brilliant centering pass from Hall and made a sweet forehand-to-backhand move to beat Bobrovsky.
Florida got on the board with 5:19 left as Forsling scored short-handed off a pass from Eetu Luostarinen. Reinhart’s goal with 4:01 left made it 4-2.
–Field Level Media
