The Bruins picked a heck of a time to lose their second straight game at the Garden.
The B’s had not lost consecutive games on Causeway Street all season but, after dropping Game 2 here last week – then winning both Games 3 and 4 in Sunrise — the B’s had a chance to end the Florida Pantrhers’ season in Game 5 at the Garden on Wednesday.
Instead, they gave the Panthers life in the most painful way possible, losing in OT, 4-3, on a Matthew Tkachuk goal.
In overtime, Linus Ullmark and Matt Grzelcyk misplayed the puck behind their net and Sam Bennett pounced on it. As Ullmark scrambled to get back in net, Bennett threw the puck at him and it deflected out front to Tkachuk, who backhanded the winner home.
The B’s outshot the Panthers, 47-26, but the goals allowed were again self-inflicted.
The Bruins tied the game for the third time at 9:16 of the third when Taylor Hall dug out a puck in the slot, backed up and then beat goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with a high wrist shot, his fifth goal of the series to tie it at 3-3.
The B’s had a great chance to get the go-ahead goal when Florida was called for too-many-men with 3:35 left in the third but they managed just one shot. And then Brad Marchand was stopped on a late breakaway after exploding out of the defensive zone off a faceoff. Racing the clock, Marchand got a shot off that would have counted but Bobrovsky was able to kick it out and send it to OT.
After the B’s tied the game on a power play, Jakub Lauko was called for hooking off a faceoff – his second penalty of the game – and the Panthers took their third lead of the game when Matthew Tkachuk fed Sam Reinhart for a snap shot goal from the slot at 5:14.
The B’s had tied it just 41 seconds before that.
Trailing 2-1 going into the third period, Charlie Coyle drew his second penalty of the game and the B’s tied it up on the power play, their second PP goal of the game. Patrice Bergeron, making his series debut, redirected a Brad Marchand shot/pass past Sergei Bobrovsky.
It would be back and forth frm there until Tkachuk finally sent the series back to Sunrise.
The Bruins seemed ready to seize the moment on the first few shifts and earned the first power play of the game when Colin White chopped Dmitry Orlov 5:01 into the game.
But it was a dreadful, shot-less power play and the Panthers started to spend more time in the Boston zone after that. And soon, Tyler Bertuzzi handed the Panthers the first lead of the game.
Bertuzzi had gained control of the puck deep on the right side and he decided to send a soft backhand pass into the slot where there were no Black and gold shirts, just Florida’s Carter Verhaege. Bertuzzi had a similar turnover in Game 2 and Linus Ullmark was able to bail him out. Ullmark almost did it again,turning away Verhaege’s initial shot. But the Panther stayed with it behind the net and fed Anthony Duclair for the 1-0 lead at 8:26.
Coach Jim Montgomery decided to break up his lines, scrapping the Bertuzzi-Bergeron-David Pastrnak unit and putting Brad Marchand up in Bertuzzi’s spot. The B’s started picking up their physical play, with Bergeron creating some good offensive zone time with a big hit behind the net on Aaron Ekblad. But while they ended up with a 9-8 shot advantage, they didn’t have many good chances – their best one may have been on an odd man rush when Jakub Lauko passed up a good shot to pass to Tomas Nosek – and went into the first intermission down by a goal.
The B’s tied it up early in the second period after a beast-like shift by Charlie Coyle drew a holding penalty on the first shift of the period.
On the power player, Bertuzzi and Bergeron won a board battle on the right side to get it to Charlie McAvoy at the right point. McAvoy fed a wide open Brad Marchand on the left side. Bobrosvsky got a piece of Marchand’s original shot, but it broke through him and Marchand was able to get in behind him to jam it home to tie the game at 2:27. It was Marchand’s fourth goal in the five games.
The B’s were buzzing after that, especially when they had to kill their first penalty, creating a couple of good scoring chances of their own but Bobrovsky was able to keep it even. As the period was wearing on and the ice was tilting toward the Florida end, Bobrovsky was starting to look like the $10 million man he is supposed to be. The B’s were getting lots of shots, but no rebounds.
Late in the period, the B’s again failed on another power play and, shortly afterward, they let Florida retake the lead with 1:08 left in the second. The B’s had an unforced icing and then turned the puck over multiple times near the blue line. Eventually, Verhaege came out of the pack off the boards, beating Coyle and Derek Forbort to find Sam Bennett in the slot. Bennett snapped a wrist shot that beat Ullmark to the glove side.
The B’s had a 18-8 shot advantage in the second, but they were right back to where they started the period, down a goal.