Bruins respond to 'a little bit of adversity' to take 3-1 series lead

SUNRISE, Fla. --It's only been four days since the buzzer sounded on Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round between the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers. The Panthers had just snuck out of Boston with a split on the road. The Bruins were down their top center, which would later spread to their top two centers, and the team was heading out of town.

Since then, well, things are looking up for Boston.
As defenseman Charlie McAvoy said after the Bruins won both games in South Florida to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series, "Game 2 was a while ago."
Indeed.
RELATED: [Complete Bruins vs. Panthers series coverage]
The Bruins earned a 6-2 win against the Panthers on Sunday afternoon in a scrum-heavy, extremely chippy game. They now head back north for Game 5 at TD Garden on Wednesday one win from advancing to the second round for the fifth time in the past six seasons.
"That was big for us to come in here," said forward Tyler Bertuzzi, who had a goal and an assist and has six points in four playoff games. "Obviously, we lost the one at home and we needed to rebound. To get two on the road, that's big in a seven-game series. We're going to try and close it out back home."
But Boston is not taking anything for granted. It watched Florida put 44 shots on net in Game 4 and score its first power-play goal after going 0-for-9 to start the series. It knows Florida is not going to slink away easily.
"I think we have to be happy with the results, but we can still be better with our game," forward Brad Marchand said. "We did a great job responding to a little bit of adversity, but these games are over and done with and they have no bearing on how the next one's going to be played and the outcome of it.
"We still have to be better."
And yet, the Bruins did not leave room for much doubt.
Despite the Panthers taking the first 10 shots of the game -- Boston's first shot did not come until 9:06 of the first period -- there seemed to be little doubt regarding who would win Game 4.
Facing goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who relieved Alex Lyon in Game 3 and was making his first start since March 27, the Bruins got their first goal of the game soon after that first shot on goal, when Marchand pushed a loose puck in the crease under Bobrovsky's outstretched legs at 9:45.
Boston would keep the pressure on despite Florida cutting into the lead twice, first on a goal from Matthew Tkachuk that made it 2-1 at 16:00 of the second period, then on a power-play goal from Sam Bennett that made it 3-2 at 6:11 of the third period.
But each time the Bruins came back, each time they extended the lead, each time they put it further out of reach for Florida.
"We stuck with it," forward Garnet Hathaway said. "On their home ice, they're playing a tough game and they're fighting back. I thought we stuck to the process for us, which is being smart with the puck and those opportunities are going to come and we ended up burying it and playing with the lead."
Although the Bruins got two goals each from Taylor Hall and Jake DeBrusk, with Hall adding two assists and DeBrusk coming back from stitches to the side of his head in the first, Linus Ullmark might have been their most important player. The goalie, yet again, was a star for the Bruins, starting with a diving save across the crease on Sam Reinhart at 7:10 of the first period.
Ullmark would finish with 41 saves on 43 shots and get the secondary assist on Hall's goal at 16:24 of the third period that gave Boston a commanding 5-2 lead. And just 25 seconds later, Ullmark came to blows with Tkachuk, resulting in him getting a 10-minute misconduct, which was served by David Pastrnak. Although Ullmark could have remained in the game, the Bruins opted to put Jeremy Swayman in for the final minutes.
"They came out with a really good push, and he allowed us to weather the storm and start going back at them," coach Jim Montgomery said. "That one where he dove across with his body in the first, that's a goal; that's a high-end save. And he probably made 4-6 more of those. … But he's been doing that for us all year. It's amazing how calm I am when I see scrambles in front of his net because he's calm."
The word from the Bruins all season has been about their process, about focusing on it, regardless of who is in the lineup. Even if Patrice Bergeron is not, even if David Krejci is not, which has stood them in good stead this season.
They have taken each hit in stride and bounced back. They have, as Montgomery said, dug in. And now, they are one win from the second round, one win that they can get at home at TD Garden in Game 5 on Wednesday, a game that could also see the return of Bergeron.
"Considering we were missing a couple big guys, we responded really well," Marchand said. "That's what we've done all year, so we really didn't expect anything different from our group.
"We expected to come down here and put a good effort in and try to win both games, regardless of who's in or out of the lineup. Just shows our depth. … But again, these games are done, and we've got to get ready for a war next game."