The Florida Panthers capitalized on four power-play goals to defeat the Boston Bruins 6-2 at TD Garden on Friday, taking a 2-1 lead in the second-round playoff series.
Evan Rodrigues gave Florida the lead 8:04 into the first period with a bat-in goal assisted by Gustav Forsling. The Panthers broke the contest open late in the second period with two goals in exactly one minute. Vladimir Tarasenko scored on the power play at 16:14 with assists from Sam Bennett and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, followed by a power-play tip-in from Carter Verhaeghe at 17:14 off passes from Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov to make it 3-0.
Brandon Montour extended Florida's lead to 4-0 on another man advantage 3:09 into the third period, with Tkachuk and Barkov again collecting assists. Boston answered with two quick goals, as Jakub Lauko scored at 5:01 and Jake DeBrusk converted a wrist shot at 8:31. Sam Reinhart halted the push by scoring into an empty net at 18:36, and Rodrigues capped the scoring with a slap-shot power-play goal at 19:09.
Special teams shaped the outcome, as Florida converted four of six power plays while Boston went 0-for-2. Sergei Bobrovsky earned the victory for the Panthers by stopping 15 of 17 shots. Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman took the loss, making 27 saves on 32 shots as Florida finished with a 33-17 edge in total shots on goal.
Tkachuk reached a three-point milestone in the victory with three assists, while Barkov also posted two assists and Rodrigues scored two goals. Boston has now dropped two consecutive games in the series following a 6-1 defeat in Game 2.
