Carter Verhaeghe scored 8:35 into overtime Sunday night, as the Florida Panthers shocked the Boston Bruins 4-3 in game seven of an NHL Eastern Conference First Round series at TD Garden. Florida, who was down in the series 3-1, rally to advance to the second round to play the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The big change for the deciding game was Jeremy Swayman starting in net for Boston for the first time in the series, as Linus Ullmark has struggled especially in game six when Florida scored six times on him. The Panthers struck first in this one, as Anton Lundell had a give and go with Brandon Montour. Lundell led Montour with a pass into the left faceoff circle, and Montour fired one on his backhand that went through the legs of Swayman on the powerplay at 12:23 for the lone goal in the first period. The Bruins almost tied it late in the opening 20 minutes when a loose puck in the crease came loose to Brandon Carlo, but Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky deflected the shot by Carlo away with his blocker.
Not managing the puck well cost Boston again early in the second period. Florida got the puck in the low slot to Sam Reinhardt, as his quick shot cleanly beat Swayman at 1:14 and a 2-0 lead. The Bruins carried the play, and would get on the board on a one-timer from David Krejci that beat Bobrovsky on the powerplay at 7:52. The Panthers had some good chances to extend the lead back to a pair, but Swayman came up with a few timely saves. A penalty at 19:14 on Montour for roughing would give the hosts another man advantage, which would carry over to the third down by a goal.
It took 55 seconds into the third period to tie it, as on the carry over powerplay Dmitry Orlov had a shot from the high slot through traffic that was deflected in by Tyler Bertuzzi to make it 2-2. David Pastrnak gave Boston their only lead of the night at 4:11. A long shot from just inside the right point by Carlo was kicked out by the pads of Bobrovsky, but right on the stick of Pastrnak who one-timed it into the back of the net from the left faceoff circle. Florida would force overtime in the closing minute with their goalie pulled for an extra attacker. The defenseman Montour would score his fifth goal of the series with 59.3 seconds remaining, with a shot just inside the post. In overtime, it nearly ended just 1:00 in as Matthew Tkachuk had a breakaway on Swayman but the netminder came up with a pad save. Tkachuk later had a hand in the game winner. He kept the puck alive behind the Boston net, and found Verhaeghe in the right faceoff circle. Tkachuk then cut in front to create a screen, and the shot by Verhaeghe beat Swayman over his left shoulder just underneath the crossbar at 8:35 to end the series.
Swayman made 27 saves in the loss. Krejci had a goal and two assists, and Orlov also had two points with two assists. Boston went 2-4 on the powerplay. It is a bitter pill to swallow for the Bruins after a record setting regular season with the most points and most wins in the history of the league under first year head coach Jim Montgomery. The black and gold end up with a final record of 68-16-5, and go 1-3 in this series on home ice after only losing four games total at TD Garden in the regular season. Montour had two goals and Lundell two assists for Florida, while Bobrovsky made 33 stops. The Panthers, who got into the playoffs as the second wild card, improve to 46-35-8. The first round matchup between Florida and Boston was the second most disparity in points from the regular season with teams meeting in the playoffs (135-92). The last team to win the President’s Trophy and then hoist the Stanley Cup was the 2012-2013 Chicago Blackhawks.
Story by Chris Lessner/Highlight video courtesy of the NHL website
