Bruins defeat Panthers in Game 4, extend lead in Eastern 1st Round

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Taylor Hall had two goals and two assists for the Boston Bruins in a 6-2 win against the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round at FLA Live Arena on Sunday.

Boston leads the best-of-7 series 3-1. Game 5 will be in Boston on Wednesday.
Jake DeBrusk scored twice for the Bruins, who won the Presidents' Trophy as the top team in the NHL during the regular season.
"We have to be happy with the results, but we can still be better with our game," Boston forward Brad Marchand said. "We did a great job responding to a little bit of adversity, but these games are over and done with, and they have no bearing on how the next one's gonna be played and the outcome of it."
RELATED: [Complete Bruins vs. Panthers series coverage]
Linus Ullmark made 41 saves before leaving the game with 3:11 remaining in the third period after being assessed a misconduct penalty following an altercation with Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk. Jeremy Swayman made one save in relief.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves in his first start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Panthers, who are the second wild card from the East.
"It was good to be there, for sure," Bobrovsky said. "I was happy. I felt good. It was a great crowd, great atmosphere. It was a great game. It was a fun game, fun to be there, and unfortunately we didn't pull the win, but the series is still on."
Florida got the first 10 shots on goal in the game, but Marchand gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 9:45 of the first period with a power-play goal. He jammed in a rebound between Bobrovsky's pads after the goalie made a spectacular save on Tyler Bertuzzi.

"They came up with a really good push, [Ullmark] allowed us to weather the storm and start going back at them," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. "He's been doing that for us all year. It's amazing how calm I am when I see scrambles in front of his net because he's calm."
DeBrusk made it 2-0 at 1:52 of the second period with another power-play goal, finishing a three-way passing play with Dmitry Orlov and Taylor Hall.
DeBrusk had left the game momentarily in the first period to get stitches above his left ear after being hit by a puck.
"Dusty, one of our trainers, kind of freaked out a little bit because there was a lot of blood," DeBrusk said. "Thought it was the ear but it was a little bit higher than that. But it kind of woke me up honestly."
Tkachuk cut it to 2-1 at 16:00. He got to a loose puck near the right post, put it between his legs, and scored into an open net.
Bertuzzi responded for Boston to make it 3-1 at 2:26 of the third period, tipping in Brandon Carlo's shot from the point.
Sam Bennett cut it again to 3-2 at 6:11 with a rebound on a power play. It was Florida's first goal in 10 power-play chances in the series.
"I loved our start," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "The game got away at the end by score, but not by scoring chances necessarily. We'd given up 11 even-strength shots through two periods, and the other guy made a couple of real good saves to kind of keep us from getting to be tied."
DeBrusk extended the lead to 4-2 at 8:05 when he poked in the rebound of Pavel Zacha's shot.

Hall then pushed it to 5-2 on a breakaway at 16:24 before scoring into an empty net at 19:31 for the 6-2 final.
"It was nice to see him get rewarded," DeBrusk said of Hall. "He's working hard and going into the hard areas, and it's one of those things that we need everybody this time of year, and obviously you can see his confidence. Even that breakaway goal, it's one of those things where it's a little thing, but it kinda put the nail in the coffin."
Boston is 21-2 when leading 3-1 in a best of-7 series. Florida is 0-2.
"We're just gonna keep going," Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. "We had a good start. We want to have the same start and try and play the whole game. That's our identity and that's how we need to play."
NOTES:The Bruins again played without their top two centers, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, each of whom is out with an upper-body injury. … Florida played without defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who sustained an upper-body injury in the second period of Game 3.
Casey Fitzgerald replaced Ekblad in the lineup and played 8:08. … Orlov is the first NHL defenseman to get a point in each of his first four playoff games with a new team since Kris Russell did it with the Calgary Flames in 2015.