Bruins Drop Game 2 to Panthers, Series Tied at 1

BOSTON - All season long, the Bruins were the league's best third-period team.
But on Wednesday night, the Black & Gold put forth, perhaps, their worst final frame of the year. With the game tied heading to the third, Florida put up four goals over the final 20 minutes and delivered the Bruins a 6-3 thumping in Game 2 at TD Garden to tie the opening-round series at a game apiece.

"It wasn't our best," said Brad Marchand. "I thought we did a good job battling back in the first two [periods]. The third got away from us. It would've been nice to have a couple of plays back. They played really hard. They played very desperate, played a really complete game.
"We need to be better. The good thing about playoffs is it doesn't matter what happened. Just gotta move forward and get ready for the next one."

The Bruins' main downfall was a bevy of turnovers as they were tagged with 15 giveaways - two of which led directly to Florida goals - to the Panthers' five.
"They put a lot of pressure," said Marchand. "They were playing really fast. [Sam] Bennett back in the lineup. Obviously, he plays extremely hard. Tough player to play against. Adds depth into their lineup as well. So that third line is even stronger. They played fast. They were moving pucks ups and getting on the forecheck hard and being physical.
"A big part of it was them, and we forced a few plays. It'd be nice to have back. I definitely didn't take care of pucks at some point. You gotta give them credit, they played hard."
Boston twice battled back to tie the game in the second - Marchand knotted it 1-1 with a shorthanded goal at 12:13 and Tyler Bertuzzi redirected home the equalizer on the power play to make it 2-2 at 17:01 - but failed to generate the right response in the third when Florida struck just 22 seconds in to grab a 3-2 lead and again at 7:00 of the period to make it 4-2.
"I didn't think we regrouped or reset," said coach Jim Montgomery. "Most of the year, we've been able to take a breath, reset, and go back to our game. We didn't go back to our game when it went 4-2. I thought we got back to our game in the first two periods, every time we fell behind we got back to our game.
"Actually, a lot of what we did in the first two periods I liked, except for getting high scoring chances with screens at the net front."

Montgomery added that the Bruins must do a better job of adjusting to Florida's forecheck which has significantly disrupted Boston's ability to break the puck out of its own end.
"It's five guys working together, it's not just defensemen and it's not just forwards not scoring goals," said Montgomery, who noted that he'll be considering lineup changes for Game 3. "We believe in being a five-man unit in every zone. For the first two periods we thought we did that, except for some of the puck decisions that we made.
"And in the third period, our game got away from us. For a team that's been really good in the third period for a long time, it's an opportunity for us to learn and grow from that."
As is the battle they are now in with the series tied at a game apiece and heading south to Sunrise for Games 3 and 4 this weekend.
"We knew it was gonna be a hard series," said Marchand. "Definitely not one we expected to walk through. They play well at home, so we have our work cut out for us. We have to make sure that we bring our best next game. It's one day at a time in playoffs. You can't look at tonight. And doesn't matter if we lost 10-0 or we lost in overtime. A loss is a loss, a win is a win. We move on.
"We'll forget about this one now and start regrouping and see where we can improve. But if we don't bring our best game, it's gonna be a tough trip, so we gotta make sure we're ready for the next one."