The Florida Panthers avenged their lopsided loss in Game 1 by defeating the Boston Bruins 6-1 on Wednesday (May 6) to even their second-round playoff series at one game apiece. The Panthers looked to atone for their poor performance in Game 1 with great energy and recorded 76 hits, the most of any team in the playoffs thus far.
Boston started the scoring in the first period on Charlie Coyle’s first goal of the playoffs.
However, the Panthers answered back with second-period goals from Steven Lorentz, Aleksandar Barkov, and Gustav Forsling. When Forsling scored with two seconds remaining in the second period to give Florida a 3-1 lead heading into the break, it marked the second-latest tally in a playoff period by a Panthers player, one second shy of the record established by Tomas Fleischmann in the third period of Game 2 of the 2012 Conference Quarterfinals (19:59).
After Eetu Luostarinen scored early in the third period, Barkov tallied another to give the Panthers a 5-1 lead.
Barkov recorded his 12th multi-point playoff game to tie Carter Verhaeghe for the most in Panthers history.
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Brandon Montour added a shorthanded goal in the third period to extend the Panthers’ lead to 6-1. He recorded his seventh multi-point game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a member of the Panthers ans sits fourth on the franchise’s postseason list for multi-point outings behind his teammates Verhaeghe (12), Barkov (12), and Matthew Tkachuk (11).
The Panthers scored six consecutive goals in a playoff game for the first time in franchise history.
They Said It
“We know (Jeremy Swayman’s) a great goalie. We want to get in front of him, but at the same time we just had (Andrei) Vasilevskiy last round. He’s probably one of the best goalies. They’re both up there. We just need to get in front and make it hard for him.” – Anton Lundell
The Panthers have scored 27 goals so far this postseason, which is the second most among all teams behind the Colorado Avalanche (32).
The two teams will head to Boston for Game 3 of the series on Thursday, May 10.