Panthers steal Game 4, 3-2

After a promising start to Game 4, the Bruins’ season is hanging by the thread.

And they’ve got yet another beef with the National Hockey League because of it.

The B’s squandered a 2-0 lead and lost 3-2 to the Florida Panthers at the Garden to fall into a 3-1 series hole on Sunday night. The game was tied in the third period by the new Public Enemy No. 1 in Sam Bennett — a player the B’s believe should have been suspended for his actions in Game 3 — on a highly disputed goal.

Sasha Barkov then scored the eventual game-winner at 7:31.

On the disputed Bennett goal that came on a power play with Hampus Lindholm in the box for interference, the Panther forward clearly knocked Charlie Coyle into Jeremy Swayman with a crosscheck, rendering the netminder helpless, and then put the loose puck into the net to tie it at 2-2 at 3:41 of the second period.

Coach Jim Montgomery challenged for goalie interference – the rule states that if a defending player is “pushed, shoved or fouled so as to cause the defending player to come into contact with his own goalkeeper…(the goal) would be disallowed” – but the goal was stunningly allowed to stand by the brain trust in Toronto, turning the face of an apoplectic Montgomery a beet red on the bench.

The official explanation from the league said that the contact “did not prevent Swayman from playing his position in the crease prior to Bennett’s goal.”

After the game, the coach chose to keep in check the emotions that had to be bubbling up inside of him.

“We thought that Coyle was on top of our goaltender and if Coyle was able to stand his ground, he could have cleared the puck. That inhibited our goaltender for being able to react to playing the puck,” said Montgomery in a painfully controlled tone.

Swayman had little doubt that the goal would come off the board.

“I can only stick to facts. I know that our guys aren’t going to call a challenge unless they know it’s going to get reversed. The fact is I couldn’t play my position,” said Swayman, who made 39 saves.

Then again, it was the tying goal that most observers felt came on a botched call. It wasn’t the winning goal. That came when Barkov was able to barely keep the puck inside the zone on a rush, beat stick-checks from David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk and lift a shot over Swayman’s blocker at 7:31 of the third.

“It’s a tough call (on the allowed goal),” said Coyle. “Sometimes you’ve got to play through things and you can’t make excuses, right? No matter what it is, plays during the game, down in the series, we keep playing, we come back and get it the next time.”

The B’s took four penalties in the third period, two of which were interference calls on Lindholm that Montgomery didn’t like.

“I think it’s playoff hockey and there’s hard plays in playoff hockey. I don’t see a scoring chance on either one of them, so I just think they’re good hard hockey plays in playoff hockey,” said Montgomery, whose team was outshot 42-18.

But the B’s got a couple of PP chances of their own in the third period as well, one on a Gus Forsling tripping penalty on which the B’s were far too tentative in their shot selection, given the circumstances. The second one came when Aaron Ekblad took an interference penalty with 37 seconds left. On the 6-on-4, Sergei Bobrovsky came up with a huge save on Charlie McAvoy in the waning seconds to preserve the victory.

The night started out with so much promise for the Bruins and fans anticipating frontier justice.

With their captain Brad Marchand unable to go with a suspected concussion thanks to a Bennett cheap shot that went unpunished by the Game 3 on-ice officials as well as the Department of Player Safety, the Bruins came out of the chute looking to make some sort of statement.

It didn’t take long. On the first shift of the game, McAvoy lined up Sam Reinhart inside the Florida blue line and absolutely blew him up with a thunderous hit.

With the Garden buzzing, the B’s took the first penalty of the game when Pastrnak punched Anton Lundell at a stoppage in front of Jeremy Swayman. The B’s killed it off and, when Aaron Ekblad hauled down John Beecher on a rush, the B’s took the lead on the power play, and quickly.

Just eight seconds after Ekblad took his seat, DeBrusk fed Pastrnak at the right circle and he blasted a one-timer past Bobrovsky at 8:53. It was the B’s first power-play goal of the series and just Pastrnak’s second PP goal since Jan. 25.

The B’s took a 2-0 lead at 15:12 on Brandon Carlo’s third goal of the playoffs. With the B’s pressuring, the puck looked like it was going to get out of the zone but Carlo caught up to it and flung it toward the net, somehow beating Bobrovsky.

Pat Maroon also made his presence felt. In warmups, he had been barking at Bobrovsky. And in the first period, he appeared to be demonstrably offering out both Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk, delighting the vengeance-minded crowd. Neither Panther took him up on the offer. Even Swayman got in on the act a little later, giving Tkachuk a tap and giving him a “let’s go” gesture with his glove.

This is not to say that the B’s dominated the first period. Quite the contrary. They were outshot 15 -5 and Swayman had to be sharp. His best save came on an early Vladimir Tarasenko breakaway.

The B’s had a couple of chances to stretch the lead to three goals in the second period, including two off the stick of Charlie Coyle.

Swayman had been airtight for the first half of the game, but Lundell sneaked one by him at 14:51, beating him on a shortside shot from the left circle, one-timing an Evan Rodrigues pass from below the goal line.

Before the period was out, the B’s had a huge opportunity to retake their two-goal lead when DeBrusk had a clean break-in but his backhander went between Bobrovsky’s pads and just wide.

Then, with a fair amount of help from the people in the situation in Toronto, the Panthers completed the comeback in the third. And now the B’s are down to their last out.

As is his way, Swayman continued to profess the utmost confidence that his team will get the job done.

“We learn from our mistakes, we learn from our success,” said Swayman. “What I’m so impressed by with this group is the way that they keep composed. We keep composed. And we see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and that team over there knows that. And that’s what’s really exciting for us. We know we can put together a better game and that’s wat we will do.”

To stave off elimination, the B’s may need not just a better game, but their best game.