RECAP: Panthers 6, Bruins 1

SUNRISE, Fla. – Take a breath, Cats fans.

We’re all even.

Led by a three-goal outburst in the second period, the Florida Panthers cruised to a 6-1 win over the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Wednesday.

Tied 1-1 after two games at Amerant Bank Arena, the series now shifts to Boston for Games 3 and 4.

“I think overall we did what we wanted to do,” said Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, who notched two goals and two assists in the win. “They got the lead in the first period, but we didn’t change a thing. We just wanted to keep playing our game and playing hard.”

In addition to the Panthers filling up the back of the net in Game 2, the two teams also combined for 146 hits and 158 penalty minutes in a fiery matchup worthy of primetime.

After the hard-fought win, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice could help but crack a smile.

“If you paid money to come to the rink tonight, you had a hell of a night,” Maurice said.

Not long after killing off a power play for the Panthers, the Bruins opened the scoring when Charlie Coyle took a feed from Pavel Zacha and tapped the puck into the net from the doorstep to make it 1-0 at 12:12 of the first period.

Struggling to find a rhythm, the Panthers switched up their lines early.

Aleksander Barkov was reunited with Sam Reinhart and Vladimir Tarasenko on the first line, Anton Lundell was joined by Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe on the second line, and Kevin Stenlund teamed up with Evan Rodrigues and Eetu Luostarinen on the third line.

The only line to remain unchanged due to their stellar paly in the first period, it was the fourth line that evened the score in the second. Setting up shop in the slot, Steven Lorentz deftly tipped a shot from Brandon Montour past Jeremy Swayman to make it 1-1 at 1:56.

In that moment, you felt the tide start to turn.

“Our bench was jacked on that,” Maurice said.” It’s a big goal. It’s an important one. There was a lot of emotion brought into our bench. Of course in the playoffs you have to become a team. It’s really important for the players that do the hard stuff to get a reward. He scores that goal and everyone’s about three inches higher when they jump up.”

Feeding off another great shift from the fourth line, the Panthers took the lead and brought the building to life when Barkov powered a rebound past Swayman to make it 2-1 at 9:49.

Keeping the momentum intact for the Panthers, Sergei Bobrovsky came up in the clutch on the penalty kill when he gobbled up a point-blank slot shot from Coyle, a key stop that earned an audible avalanche of “Bob-by!” chants from the sellout crowd in Sunrise.

Over three power plays for the Bruins, Florida surrendered just two shots on goal.

“Before [my save] the guys had a couple great blocked shots,” said Bobrovsky, who finished with 14 saves on 15 shots in the win. “It’s just that the penalty kill was delivering.”

Not satisfied with their one-goal cushion heading into the second intermission, the Panthers tacked on one more for good measure when Gustav Forsling locked, loaded and buried a blistering one-timer from below the blue line to make it 3-1 with two seconds left.

Refusing to let the Bruins get back into the game, the Panthers continued to attack the net early in the third period and were rewarded with another goal when Eetu Luostarinen took a slick slot-pass from Barkov and beat Swayman from in tight to increase the lead to 4-1 at 1:28.

Following that goal, Swayman was pulled in favor of Linus Ullmark.

Finally showing some signs of vulnerability, Swayman, who had not been tagged for more than two goals in any of his previous seven playoff starts, finished with four goals allowed on 23 shots.

“I really think our forwards did a great job just getting in front of him,” Forsling said of chasing Swayman. “That’s the way you score in the playoffs. You get one, two guys in front of him so he can’t see the puck. I think that’s huge. Our D also got our shots through, too.”

Ending a long drought on the power play against the Bruins -- another key element to build on heading into Game 3 -- the Panthers padded their lead to 5-1 when Barkov finished off a give-and-go with Sam Reinhart by beating Ullmark with a lethally effortless snipe from the high slot at 10:52.

Named first star of the game, Barkov’s final stat sheet is a sight to behold. In addition to his four points, he also recorded two takeaways, a team-high nine hits and won 72.7% of his faceoffs. At 5-on-5, the Panthers led Boston 9-2 in scoring chances when he was on the ice.

Talk about leading by example.

“In a very good way, he’s the perfect man to be captain of the Florida Panthers,” Maurice said of Barkov, who's posted eight points in his last three games. “The thing I heard most when I came here was, ‘You have no idea how good Barkov is.’ I’ve got a TV. I’ve got a pretty good idea. It’s not my first game. But they were right. He’s better this year than he’s ever been.”

From there, temperatures boiled over and misconducts started to be handed out like candy by officials.

And even when the Bruins earned a power play after one incident in particular, the Panthers refused to slow down as Brandon Montour scored shorthanded to make it 6-1 at 11:58.

At 12:42, Matthew Tkachuk and David Pastrnak dropped the gloves.

Turning heads, it’s not every day you see two high-scoring superstars go toe-to-toe.

From the ice to the stands, everyone seemed to love it.

“You’re going to see that on highlights over and over and over again,” Maurice said of the brawl, which Tkachuk won convincingly with a few big blows. “I think it’s a good thing. You’ve got two elite offensive players. Chucky (Tkachuk) is a 100-point guy all day long; Pastrnak’s just this brilliant player. But it’s playoffs. They’ve each got their team. They’ve got their brothers in the room. It gets a little spicy out there and they want to go. I think it was awesome.”

If you had to sum up the win, I think most fans would agree “awesome” is a good word.

After winning both the game and the physical battle, the Panthers can’t wait for Game 3.

“The game is over now, and now we concentrate on [the next one],” Barkov said.

THEY SAID IT

“I really liked our defensive game tonight. We boxed out, let Bob (Sergei Bobrovsky) see the puck. That was a big difference. The PK was very good, too.” – Gustav Forsling

“Sometimes it happens in playoffs. It’s OK. We go through that, and they go through that. I think when the puck drops [in Game 3] everyone is going to try to play their game. It’s going to be like that, at least right away.” – Aleksander Barkov

“We were just chipping away. Once we got that first [goal], we kind of got the ball rolling. Happy with our performance tonight and we’ve got to keep it going in Boston.” – Steven Lorentz

“It was a good fight, a good battle. It’s a big win for us.” – Sergei Bobrovsky

CATS STATS

- Brandon Montour recorded his seventh multi-point playoff game as a Panther.

- Aleksander Barkov registered the 12^th multi-point playoff game of his career.

- Florida’s six consecutive playoff goals set a new franchise record.

- Sam Reinhart recorded four assists, setting a new franchise playoff record.

- Thirteen different players received a misconduct penalty in the third period.

- The Panthers never allowed more than six shots on goal in any period tonight.

- The Bruins were held to just three shots on goal in the third period.

- The Panthers led 20-2 in shot attempts at 5-on-5 when Dmitry Kulikov was deployed.

WHAT’S NEXT?

After splitting the first two games at home, it’s time to ship up to Boston.

Looking to gain an edge in the series, the Panthers will battle the Bruins in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Friday at TD Garden at 7 p.m. ET.

The official watch party in South Florida will be held at Funky Buddha.

For details, visit FloridaPanthers.com/CatsOnTap.