Jeremy Swayman, the goaltender for Boston, had a really certain expression on his face when he turned to face those supporters throughout the song. It was as if he already knew that they would remain silent for the better part of the night.
During the playing of the national anthem, the sellout audience in Florida went wild. I could feel the enthusiasm in the building as we sang along loudly, even shouting at points.
He carried out just that.
Monday night, the Bruins defeated the Panthers 5-1 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series. Swayman extended his incredible playoffs brilliance by saving 38 shots. Brandon Carlo also scored a goal just after his wife gave birth to their kid.
Boston’s record against the Panthers this season is at 5-0-0 thanks to goals from Mason Lohrei, Jake DeBrusk, Justin Brazeau, and Morgan Geekie. With three goals in the last 7:08 of the second period, the Bruins overcame a 1-0 deficit to take the lead. Pavel Zacha provided two assists for the team.
As he did against Toronto in a Round 1 series that culminated in a thrilling Game 7 overtime on Saturday night, Swayman, who has played in goal for all five of Boston’s victories thus far in these playoffs, was outstanding once more.
During Florida’s three power plays, he stopped every one of the seven shots he saw, enhancing his already impressive record as the finest goaltender of the playoffs.
With a very stingy goals-against average of 1.42, Swayman has made a league-best 210 saves through seven postseason games.
Coach Jim Montgomery of the Boston Bruins commented, “We made a lot of mistakes.” “If not for Jeremy Swayman, that would have been a lot closer game and maybe they come out on top.”
The goal came from Matthew Tkachuk for Florida, a team that has just twice in its nine NHL playoff series ever come back from a 1-0 hole to win; the other time was in Round 1 against Boston last year. With the Panthers playing for the first game in a week, Sergei Bobrovsky saved twenty-four shots.
Wednesday night is Game 2 in Sunrise.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice remarked, “I didn’t care for our game.” “And I think we can fix a big chunk of the things we didn’t like.”
It was the first one-sided match of five this season between the Atlantic Division’s two finishing teams, Florida (110 points) and Boston (109 points). Throughout the regular season, Boston prevailed in three of them by a goal and in the other by two; nevertheless, in those matches, Florida held a 78% lead or was tied.
Something was odd about this one. Boston became absolutely airtight defensively after taking the lead. The Bruins, who have now successfully come back from 1-0 deficits in four of their five games against Florida this season, did this.
“We made some mistakes and probably weren’t as hard as we needed to be tonight,” Tkachuk said. “And they played well.”
A goalie’s duel between Swayman and Bobrovsky throughout the first thirty-one minutes of play, Tkachuk scored the game’s opening goal midway through the second period, his fourth of the postseason. His tenure as a deficit manager was brief.
After a stray puck was cleaned up in front by Geekie, Boston scored the equalizer in just 67 seconds. After 3:25, Lohrei scored his first goal of the playoffs by taking a hard angle and shooting over Bobrovsky’s shoulder, giving the team the lead.
And there was the beginning of something Carlo will always remember.
His wife Mayson was going to give birth, so he stayed home instead of traveling to South Florida on Sunday with the Bruins. On Monday morning, she gave birth to their son Crew just in time for Carlo to board a plane and go the three hours south. He was in the lineup when the rest of his teammates arrived at the arena, having come later than the others. With 21 seconds remaining in the second half, he scored to give his side a 3-1 lead.
Carlo declared, “I definitely wanted to play.” “and very happy I did.”
With 12:47 remaining, Brazeau completed the victory by sidestepping the Florida defense and hitting Bobrovsky with a backhander. With 5:30 remaining, the Panthers removed Bobrovsky, and two minutes later, DeBrusk scored an empty-net goal.
