Bruins
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Jakub Lauko on the costly goalkeeper penalty: “What should I do to avoid it?”
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Brad Marchand's departure and other takeaways from the Bruins' Game 3 loss
BOSTON (AP) — The Florida Panthers took advantage of the facility play, scoring two goals against a Bruins double-minor — and a complete of 4 goals on the person advantage — to take a 2-1 lead of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe scored a minute apart on the identical power play, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 14 shots to guide 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 within the face and bloodied him.
“This was a huge opportunity for us. And we knew it and we capitalized on it,” said Florida center Sam Bennett, who returned after missing 4 games with an undisclosed injury. “Power play goals in the playoffs can sometimes be difficult to come by. Our power play did a great job of beating us in an important part of the game and scored two very important goals.”
Power play goals were particularly difficult to attain against Boston, which converted 27 of its first 28 penalties on this yr's postseason. The Panthers have now scored on five of their last seven power play opportunities within the series.
“I was far more optimistic about our power play than the stats — or at least the goals — suggested,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “It's easy now to say, 'Well, it's only a matter of time.' But in the event you keep doing the best things, you’ll have a great night. And I believe we saved those.”
Evan Rodrigues scored two goals and Brandon Montour also scored for the Panthers, who’ve won two straight games after losing the opener at home. Florida, which won 6-1 on Wednesday night, scored 10 straight goals before Jakub Lauko made it 4-1 early within the third period and Jake DeBrusk followed with 11:31 left to finish the sport with two goals.
But Boston, playing the ultimate 20 minutes without captain and No. 2 scorer Brad Marchand, got no closer before Sam Reinhart scored an empty-net goal with 1:24 left. Rodrigues scored again in the ultimate minute – Florida's fourth power play goal of the sport.
Now the Bruins need a win at home on Sunday night to avoid a 3-1 deficit heading back to Florida for Game 5.
“Florida was good. We weren't. “We're moving on to the next game,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who must determine whether to show to Linus Ullmark, who alternated with Jeremy Swayman for many of the season before Boston abandoned the rotation within the playoffs. “It is still too early to talk about changes.”
Swayman stopped 27 shots for Boston, which was outscored 13-3 in the primary period and 33-16 overall. The situation became even worse when Marchand, who gave the impression to be struggling after a goal from Bennett in the primary period, didn’t return within the third period.
But that was the one period of competition for the Bruins.
“I thought we bonded because of our captain,” Montgomery said. “I thought (David Pastrnak) and Charlie McEvoy did a great job with him off the bench. I thought our players were all in good shape and we could have competed like Brad Marchand would.”
After splitting the primary two games on home ice, the Panthers made it 1-0 after eight minutes when Rodrigues knocked a puck out of the air and past Swayman. It stayed that way until Lohrei hit Lorentz within the mouth along with his stick late within the second.
With 23 seconds left in the primary period of the shootout, Tarasenko beat Swayman with a wrist shot from the left circle – with an assist from Sam Bennett, who was within the lineup for the primary 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 period, Lauko was sent off for interfering with the goalkeeper. The Bruins howled about being pushed into Bobrovsky by Aaron Ekblad, and fans threw water bottles and free towels onto the ice, delaying the sport for several minutes.
But once the debris was cleared, Montour scored to present Florida a 4-0 lead.
image credit : www.boston.com