SUNRISE, Fla. – The Florida Panthers feel they’re poised to bounce back against the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Wednesday.
“You always learn when you lose,” Panthers forward Anton Lundell said. “That’s something we did now. We’ve looked at stuff we can do better. Now it’s all about coming in even harder today. We want to start well and play a great game.”
Hitting the ice for Game 1 at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday, the Panthers admittedly didn’t look as polished as they normally do after a weeklong break in between rounds.
Following a scoreless first period, Matthew Tkachuk opened the scoring for the Panthers and made it 1-0 in the second period. Setting a new franchise record, Tkachuk has earned a point in all six games to start this year’s playoffs.
But just 1:17 later, Morgan Geekie lit the lamp to make it 1-1. Soon after, Mason Lohrei and Brandon Carlo scored to give the Bruins a 3-1 edge heading into the intermission. In the third period, Justin Brazeau and Jake DeBrusk locked in the 5-1 final.
Despite all those goals, it was Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman that stole the show.
Stopping 38 of 39 shots, the 25-year-old surrendered two or fewer goals for the seventh straight game, which stands as the fourth-best such run by a goaltender in NHL history.
Per MoneyPuck.com, he’s saved 13.2 goals above expected in the playoffs.
“I think it’s just the simple stuff, the stuff that we always say,” Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said when asked about trying to rattle Swayman. “Obviously you’ve got to have people and pucks in front of him. You have to get to the net and simplify.”
Likely deserving of a few more goals than they ended up with against the Bruins in Game 1, the Panthers actually finished with noticeable advantages in shot attempts (86-53), scoring chances (41-23) and high-danger shot attempts (17-12), according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
That being said, it’s Boston’s 4-1 lead in goals at 5-on-5 that really stood out.
“I never like saying we had our chances,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. “We gave up too many even-strength goals in that game to realistically have a chance to win. That’ll have to be part of our focus.”
Heading into Game 2, the Panthers don’t plan to make any lineup changes.
Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 24 saves in Game 1, will get the nod in net again.
Sam Bennett, who’s been out of action since Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round with an upper-body injury, remains out of the lineup but isn’t far off from a return.
“I expect him on the road trip,” Maurice said of the team’s ailing second-line center.
With a chance to head to Boston with the series tied 1-1, it's all about turning the page tonight.
“We play every other day,” Ekman-Larsson said. “You go over it the next day or the night after the game and then you move on. There’s not really time to be mad or sad about it, it’s just move on to the next one. The team that does that best has the best chance to win.”
PANTHERS PLAYOFF LEADERS
Goals: Verhaeghe (5)
Assists: Tkachuk (6)
Points: Tkachuk (10)
Hits: Rodrigues (25)
Blocks: Forsling (14)
BRUINS PLAYOFF LEADERS
Goals: DeBrusk (4)
Assists: Marchand (6)
Points: Marchand (9)
Hits: McAvoy, Frederic (33)
Blocks: McAvoy (20)
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
“It wasn’t all bad. Just take the stuff we did good and build on that. But at the same time, we know we have to be better than the first game.” – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
“You’re always going to have a game that you don’t like -- rebounding, learning from it. Even if it’s not the critical piece to the next game, you’ll always comes back to it. There will be a loss that will really help you going forward.” – Paul Maurice
FIVE CATS STATS
- The Panthers have gone 12-for-14 on the penalty kill over their last four games.
- Brandon Montour is averaging a team-high 23:41 of ice time in the playoffs.
- Sam Reinhart has recorded a team-high 29 shots on goal in the playoffs.
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson boasts a team-high 61.59 CF% at 5-on-5 in the playoffs.
- The Panthers are winning 52.6% of their faceoffs in the playoffs.
PROJECTED LINEUP (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Forwards
Carter Verhaeghe – Aleksander Barkov – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues – Kevin Stenlund – Vladimir Tarasenko
Nick Cousins – Steven Lorentz – Kyle Okposo
Defensemen
Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Dmitry Kulikov
Goaltenders
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz
RECENT TRANSACTIONS:
- May 6: F Patrick Giles recalled from Charlotte (AHL)
- May 5: F Rasmus Asplund, Will Lockwood, Mackie Samoskevich and Justin Sourdif, D Mike Benning and Matt Kiersted, and G Magnus Hellberg recalled from Charlotte (AHL)
- May 3: G Spencer Knight recalled from Charlotte (AHL)
HOW TO WATCH/LISTEN
When: Wednesday, May 8 at 7:30 p.m. ET
Where: Amerant Bank Arena – Sunrise, FL
TV & Streaming: ESPN, ESPN+
Radio: 560 WQAM (Dade/Broward); 92.1 WZZR (Palm Beach); 100.3 WCTH (Florida Keys); 101.7 WCZR (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM Ch. 91 / App & Streaming 932; Panthers App
Tickets: **Click Here**
