SUNRISE, Fla. — Well, you didn’t think this was going to be easy, did you?
After the Bruins took Game 1 in this second-round series, the Florida Panthers bit back hard on Wednesday night, riding a dominant second period to a 6-1 victory to even the series at 1-1, chasing goalie Jeremy Swayman in the process.
In case anyone forgot, the Panthers are a very good hockey team that gave the Bruins something to think about as the series shifts to Boston for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday. And there were buckets of bad blood spilled all Amerant Bank Arena in the third period after the game was decided. In a game in which 146 hits were credited (76-70 in favor of Florida), a total of 148 penalty minutes were dished out, including 11 misconducts in the third period after the game got out of hand.
Two of those misconducts went to David Pastrnak and Matthew Tkachuk. After they had already devolved into an orgy of message-sending, Tkachuk asked the B’s superstar to fight, Pastrnak told coach Jim Montgomery that he was going to accept and the two duked it out in the middle of the ice. Tkachuk got the better of Pastrnak, and even took several late cheap shots.
Asked about the late punches, Pastrnak chose not to comment, chalking up his performance in the fight to his own inexperience. But he did not regret it.
“You’re in a game and it’s a lot emotions,” said Pastrnak. “I’m not afraid of him, to be honest. I can take a punch and I’d do anything for these guys here.”
Montgomery gave his alternate captain his kudos.
“What I’m really proud of, I’m proud of Pasta,” said Montgomery. “There are so many guys out there pushing when the linesmen are there. Pasta and Tkachuk just went out there and fought. That’s what you like. You like your hockey players to be competitors.”
As for the game, Montgomery felt that his team started to feel the effects of their recent workload. The B’s started off well and took the first lead in the first period, but they squandered several great scoring chances before Florida got its forechecking game going in the decisive second. When the Panthers scored early in the second, Montgomery decided there was nothing to be gained by leaving Swayman in and he cut his losses.
“Florida executed better than us today. And last game, we executed. It’s a long series. We got the one game we needed to get in Florida and we go back to Boston,” said Montgomery, adding later, “We had no juice.”
It didn’t take long for the Panthers to reveal their strategy, and it looked like it might work. Just 17 second into the first period, Tkachuk took a poke at Swayman, drawing a response from Brandon Carlo and Justin Brazeau. When Tkachuk persisted, Brazeau grabbed him up high and the helmet came off, sending the Bruin to the box.
But thanks to one great save on Carter Verhaeghe and some more good PK work, they survived it. Then Brad Marchand was tripped at the end of the Florida PP and the B’s got an advantage. Marchand missed an open net on a bad angle shot on the PP, but did not miss on a green light hit on Tkachuk, absolutely blasting him on a shorthanded bid.
After the B’s killed their second penalty – and 25th of 26 in the playoffs – the B’s took the first lead of the game at 12:12 when Florida turned over the puck high and their zone and the B’s immediately went on the attack. Marchand got a pass through a sliding Niko Mikkola to Pavel Zacha, who in turn tapped it back to Charlie Coyle. Coyle finished off the pretty play, burying his first goal of the playoffs from the left side of the net.
The B’s had chances to take a bigger lead than that in the first. Coyle surprised Sergei Bobrovsky with a long-range shot that beat the goalie but hit the shortside post. And then John Beecher missed a wide-open net when the rebound of a Brazeau shot on a 2-on-1.
Simply put, the B’s let the Panthers off the hook, and then Florida found its game in the second.
Florida tied it up at 1:56 of the second period with a fourth line goal. Parker Wotherspoon’s clearing attempt was stopped at the blue line by Brandon Montour. The defenseman flipped the puck toward the net and Steve Lorentz – left alone by Derek Forbort, who appeared to be anticipating a reverse pass by Wotherspoon – deflected it past Swayman to even it up.
The Panthers’ forecheck then gave them their first lead of the game at 9:49. Charlie McAvoy was checked off the puck on a breakout attempt — and he lost his stick on the play to boot. Florida moved the puck around until Sam Reinhart took a shot that Swayman stopped but couldn’t control the rebound. With the stickless McAvoy unable to play the puck, Sasha Barkov tapped home the rebound for the 2-1 lead.
McAvoy would make a couple of trips to the dressing room after that but returned to finish the period.
After a squandered power play and two more kills (including one of the B’s fifth too-many-men penalty), it looked like the B’s would escape just a one-goal deficit when disaster struck. With 11 seconds left in the period, the B’s won a faceoff in their zone and it looked like they’d be heading to the break down a goal.
But Marchand’s bank clear attempt was gloved down by Montour and, with two seconds left in the period, Gustav Forsling blasted a point slap shot past Swayman with a crushing goal.
And when Eetu Luostarinen scored at 1:58 of the third off a waved off icing and a turnover, Montgomery had seen enough. He pulled Swayman for Linus Ullmark. It had nothing to do with the goalie’s performance.
Asked if Montgomery explained the reasoning, Swayman said, “Quickly. I trust that guy with my life. He’s going to make decisions that are going to help the team and all I can say is I can’t wait till Friday.”
The rest of the game was a gong show, which led to a Barkov power-play goal after Pat Maroon took a minor and a misconduct in a running tiff with Nick Cousins.
Then Montour scored a shorthanded goal and celebrated in Marchand’s face, setting off another round of wrestling matches.
In the final insult, with both Maroon and Trent Frederic safely tucked away in the dressing room, Tkachuk dropped the gloves with Pastrnak and took three cheap shots with Pastrnak when he was down. Pastrnak then tried to get at Tkachuk through the linesmen.
Asked about the late punches, Montgomery mostly held his tongue, but it was clear he didn’t like it.
“It’s not a part of the game for me,” said Montgomery. “I’m not going to comment on players from other teams. I just worry about my own players.”
No, these two teams don’t like each other. And we’ve got ourselves an old school playoff series.
