Florida scored four power play goals on Friday in Boston
The Florida Panthers have been one of the NHL’s best road teams this season.
Florida picked up right where they left off during last year’s playoffs, winning their fourth straight postseason game in TD Garden with Friday’s 6-2 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 3.
Florida failed to score on a pair of first period power plays, but used the zone time from the first opportunity to pop in the game’s first goal.
Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues fought through the check of Bruins defender Brandon Carlo and batted the puck out of midair into the net.
When the first period ended, Boston had registered only three shots on goal, which is notable considering they put up just 15 in Game 2.
The Bruins finally began building some momentum during the middle stages of the second period, but that would be derailed after Mason Loheri was called for a four-minute double-minor for high-sticking Steven Lorentz.
Florida cashed in on both of the minors, first on a laser of a wrist shot by Vladimir Tarasenko and then on a nice deflection from in tight by Carter Verhaeghe. Just like that it was 3-0 Panthers heading into the final frame.
A Brandon Montour clapper from just inside the Bruins blue line gave Florida a 4-0 lead and their third power play goal of the night.
Jakub Lauko, whose goaltender interference call led to Montour’s goal, put Boston on the board at the 5:01 mark of the third period in what was their first shot on goal in nearly 15 minutes.
Less than four minutes later, Jake DeBrusk capitalized after Oliver Ekman-Larsson collided with Eetu Luostarinen in the neutral zone, using the open ice to walk in on Sergei Bobrovsky and fire a perfect shot over his glove and into the top corner of the net, cutting Florida’s lead to 4-2.
That would be as close as the Bruins would get.
A big penalty kill by Florida shortly after the DeBrusk tally and an empty-net goal from Sam Reinhart cemented the victory for the Panthers.
Evan Rodrigues added a power play goal in the final minute for good measure.
On to Game 4.
Here are some thoughts and observations from Game 3 in Boston:
Don’t look now but Montour has two goals and five points over his past two games.
After scoring five goals and nine points in Florida’s opening round win over Tampa, Verhaeghe’s goal in Game 3 was his first point of the Boston series.
Florida went 4-for-6 on the power play(!) and a perfect 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Matthew Tkachuk is up to 13 points in Florida’s eight playoff games with his trio of assists on Friday.
Speaking of primary assists, that’s what Sam Bennett logged on Tarasenko’s PPG. It was Bennett’s first game action since suffering an upper-body injury during Game 2 against Tampa Bay.
Barkov extended his points streak to four games with a pair of power play assists on Friday. He’s accumulated 10 points during the run.
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