5 TAKEAWAYS: Panthers 4, Bruins 3 (OT)

BOSTON -- "We live to fight another day."
Not long after he buried the game-winning goal in overtime, that's how Matthew Tkachuk succinctly summed up the Panthers' thrilling 4-3 win against the Bruins in Game 5 of their heated playoff series at TD Garden on Wednesday.
"We were supposed to get swept in this series, right?" Tkachuk said. "I don't think anybody really gave us a chance after losing two games in a row at home. Coming here in a back-against-the-wall-type game, it just seemed like the series was over before the game even started. For us to come out with the start we did speaks a lot about our team, our preparation and our belief in each other."

That belief is burning stronger than ever now.
Despite trailing the 3-2 in the Eastern Conference First Round, the Panthers know they're still very much alive as the series now shifts back to South Florida for Game 6 at FLA Live Arena on Friday.
"We've shown it all year," forward Sam Bennett said. "People were counting us out a long time ago. We're going to fight until the bitter end. That's in our nature. We showed it again tonight."
For a quick recap of the game, click
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To read up on five key takeaways for the Cats, continue below.

1. TKA-CLUTCH

Heading into overtime, Bennett said there was no stress in the locker room.
"It was more just relax, make plays and enjoy the moment," he said. "There wasn't much that really needed to be said. We knew that someone was going to be the hero in here."
That hero? Tkachuk, of course.
After Carter Verhaeghe got up in the forecheck and forced Linus Ullmark to cough up the puck, the rubber ended up right on the stick of Tkachuk. With the Bruins scrambling to try and cover the exposed cage, Tkachuk waited a split second before burying a shot to lock in the 4-3 win.

"That guy is a -- and then you put a long string of profanity -- gamer," head coach Paul Maurice said.
Just the sixth overtime goal in franchise playoff history, Tkachuk's winner was also the first-ever such goal in a potential elimination game. Finishing with a goal and an assist in Game 5, he not only registered his team-leading third multi-point game of the series, but also upped his point total in the playoffs to a team-high seven (three goals, four assists).
"We just didn't want our season to end," Tkachuk said.

2. BOB SAVES THE DAY

Sergei Bobrovsky wouldn't let the Bruins have their moment.
With the game tied in the waning seconds of regulation, the two-time Vezina Trophy winner saved both the game and the season for the Panthers when he denied Brad Marchand on a breakaway attempt to send an audible "ugh" throughout the arena and force overtime.
"We faced so much adversity over the course of the season," Bobrovsky said. "Tonight was a great game. It was a great team effort. We compete hard, we fight and we're happy with the win."

After shaking off a loss in Game 4, Bobrovsky was outstanding from start to finish in Game 5. Stopping 44 of 47 shots, his 44 saves are the third-most in a playoff game in franchise history.
Of those saves, eight were considered high-danger by NaturalStatTrick.com.
"I felt that the pressure needed to be on Sergei to play this game," Maurice said of Bobrovsky, who backed up Alex Lyon for the first three games of the series. "He needed to carry that weight. Like Matthew Tkachuk carries the weight, like Barkov does, the leaders carry the weight of your team. He needed to carry that weight, and he was brilliant. That was all him. It's not the coaching decision, it's not the faith I showed in him, that's all Sergei Bobrovsky."
At even strength, Bobrovsky stopped 37 of 38 shots.
A certified slayer of giants, Bobrovsky's win marked the fifth time in his career that he's defeated a 60-win team in the playoffs, which are the most such victories in NHL history.
"Outstanding the entire game," Bennett said. "He was our best player tonight. You need your goalie to be your best player if you're going to have success in the playoffs, and it was impressive to see a performance like that in a must-win game."

3. PLAYOFF SWAG

Verhaeghe's fingerprints were all over this win.
Dishing out three primary assists in Game 5, Verhaeghe set the record for the most points in a potential elimination game in franchise history. Bookending the game with two huge plays, he teed up Anthony Duclair for the opening goal and then set up Tkachuk for the game-winner.

On Tkachuk's goal, it was Verhaeghe's forecheck that set the whole play in motion. After intercepting a clearing attempt from Ullmark behind the net, he sent the puck into the slot where it ended up right on Tkachuk's stick for essentially an empty-net goal to lock in the victory.
"He was skating," Bennett said of the man they call Swaggy. "He's one of the fastest players in the league, and when he's skating he's so dangerous. That was awesome. It was a great play by him there to get in on the forecheck and then turn the puck over. That's a great game by him."
Second on the Panthers in playoff scoring, Verhaeghe has racked up one goal and four assists through the first five games of the series against Boston. Climbing the all-time record books as well, his 20 career playoff points as a Panther are the third-most in the history of the franchise.
"He's not a big guy, he's not a heavy guy, but he's wiry and he's on the puck," Maurice said. "I think he plays hard in the regular season. But he can get to another level. He's got to be pretty close to a point a game in the playoffs for a guy that truly hasn't played a lot of NHL hockey."

4. BENNY STAYS HOT

There's a reason they call him "Playoff Sam."
Making a dent on the scoresheet in all four games that he's suited up in during the series, Bennett put the Panthers on top 2-1 in the second period when he beat Ullmark from the slot.
His third goal of the playoffs, Bennett is tied with Tkachuk for first on the team.

Also at the center of the rough-and-tough plan of attack for the Panthers against the Bruins, Bennett doled out four hits against the Bruins. Despite missing Game 1, he currently sits tied with Sam Reinhart for first among the team's forwards in hits during the postseason with 20.
Leading 48-40 in hits in Game 5, the Panthers racked up 22 hits in the first period alone as they worked to establish their presence in enemy territory. Of the 20 times they've registered over 40 hits in a postseason game, three of them have come during the first five games of this series.
"I think we've been focused on it all series," Bennett said of the team's physical approach. "That's part of our game and how we're going to play. We're going to keep doing that."

5. CLAWING BACK

There were numerous moments where the Panthers could've packed it in during Game 5.
But that's just not how they roll.
Despite watching a one-goal lead slip away three different times throughout the game, the Panthers continued to answer back all the way until the end. And while Tkachuk's game-winner was the nail in the coffin for the Bruins, Reinhart's timely tally in the third period was also massive in terms of momentum.
Less than a minute after Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, who was making his debut in the series, made it a 2-2 game with a re-direction on the power play early in the final frame, Reinhart answered with a power-play goal of his own from the slot to put the Panthers back on top 3-2.

"You can survive a bad thing," Maurice said of his team's mental fortitude. "Things can happen."
After coming up empty the first two games, the Panthers have now capitalized on the man advantage in each of their last two games, which is a good sign heading into a huge Game 6.
Making key adjustments to the top unit, the Panthers have benefited from not only moving Bennett up from the second unit, but also shifting their other key pieces around on the ice.
"If you look at the power-play goal we scored at the end of Game 5, it was very similar in terms of structure to what you saw last night," Maurice said. "The first power play we had wasn't good, but they got to the right speed on it. That's a pretty wide-open shot that we can get in the slot, so you have to do a lot of very good things quickly to make that happen. They executed."