In Florida, the packed crowd was extremely loud during the national anthem. They sang loudly and cheered, creating a very energetic atmosphere in the arena.
Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman seemed confident as he looked around at the fans during the anthem. It seemed like he knew he would keep them quiet for most of the game. And that’s exactly what happened.
Swayman continued his excellent performance in the playoffs by saving 38 shots. Brandon Carlo scored a goal shortly after his wife gave birth to their son, and the Bruins defeated the Panthers 5-1 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series on Monday night.
“I was impressed by our determination,” Swayman said. “Our physicality and mental strength were great to see, and I’m excited for what’s next.”
Morgan Geekie, Mason Lohrei, Justin Brazeau, and Jake DeBrusk also scored goals for Boston, which remained undefeated against the Panthers this season. Pavel Zacha contributed with two assists for the Bruins, who scored three goals in the final 7:08 of the second period to take control of the game after trailing 1-0.
Swayman has been the goalie for all five of Boston’s wins in these playoffs and was excellent once again, just like he was against Toronto in the first round series that ended with an overtime thriller in Game 7 on Saturday night.
He stopped all seven shots he faced during Florida’s three power plays, improving his stats to be the best of any goalie so far in these playoffs.
In his seven playoff games, Swayman has made the most saves in the league with 210, and has a very low goals-against average of 1.42.
“We made a lot of mistakes,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “If it wasn’t for Jeremy Swayman, the game would have been much closer, and maybe they would have won.”
Matthew Tkachuk scored the only goal for Florida. They have only come back from a 1-0 deficit to win an NHL playoff series twice in nine previous opportunities – one of those was last year against Boston in the first round. Sergei Bobrovsky saved 24 shots for the Panthers, who hadn’t played in a week.
Game 2 will be in Sunrise on Wednesday night. “I didn’t like how we played,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “And I think we can fix many of the things we didn’t like.”
This was the first one-sided game of the five this season between the teams who finished first and second in the Atlantic Division – Florida with 110 points and Boston with 109 points. Boston won all the regular season games, three by one goal and one by two goals, but Florida was tied or ahead in those games 78% of the time.
This game was unique. Once Boston took the lead, they became very strong defensively. They’ve now come from behind 1-0 in four out of five games against Florida this season. “We made some mistakes and probably weren’t as tough as we needed to be tonight,” Tkachuk said. “And they played well.”
Swayman let in the first goal to Tkachuk, Florida’s star player, midway through the second period after he and Bobrovsky had a strong competition in goal for the first 31 minutes. But Boston quickly responded.
It only took Boston 67 seconds to tie the game, with Geekie scoring from a loose puck in front of the net. Then, just over 3 minutes later, Lohrei scored his first playoff goal by shooting over Bobrovsky’s shoulder from a difficult angle. That paved the way for Carlo to make a memorable contribution.
He wasn’t on the flight with the Bruins to South Florida on Sunday because his wife Mayson was about to give birth. She delivered their son Crew on Monday morning, just in time for Carlo to catch a plane for the three-hour trip south.
He got to the arena after his teammates, but in time to play – and he scored with 21 seconds left in the second period, giving his team a 3-1 lead. “I really wanted to play,” Carlo said. “and I’m very happy I did.”
Brazeau sealed the game with 12:47 left, getting past the Florida defense and scoring with a backhander. The Panthers pulled Bobrovsky with 5:30 left, and DeBrusk scored an empty-netter about 2 minutes later.
