Panthers remain comfortable in Boston, rally past Bruins in Game 4

BOSTON -- The Florida Panthers easily could’ve been flustered, but over the past two seasons they’ve become very comfortable playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden.

So, despite falling behind the Boston Bruins by two goals in the first period with the fans seemingly expressing their vitriol about every play they made, the Panthers simply shrugged it off. They kept playing and scored three unanswered goals, including Aleksander Barkov’s winner at 7:31 of the third period, to pull out a 3-2 victory in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Sunday.

“Of course, they got a good start, scored a couple goals and this is a tough building to play in, but we just stick with it,” Barkov said. “We liked how played in the first period, even though they had two goals. But we liked our chances. We just kept going, kept pushing and getting better.”

Florida has now won five consecutive playoff games at TD Garden, including three in defeating the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs last season and Games 3 and 4 of this series. The Panthers head home for Game 5 on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SNO, SNE, TVAS, CBC) leading 3-1 in the best-of-7 series with a chance to close it out and advance to the Eastern Conference Final for the second straight season.

“It's important just to regroup. Recover right now and regroup,” said center Sam Bennett, whose power-play goal at 3:41 of the third tied it 2-2. “It’s going to be a huge, huge game at home. I’m sure the fans are going to be into it, so just regroup, refocus and prepare for that next game.”

Florida knows well now how to handle the hostile environment in playoff games here, but Boston and its crowd were particularly riled up after losing captain Brad Marchand to an upper-body injury he sustained in a collision with Bennett in the first period of Game 3 on Friday. With Marchand out, the Bruins tried to set a physical tone early with Charlie McAvoy leveling Panthers forward Sam Reinhart at the Florida blue line 15 seconds into the game.

That was one of 19 Bruins’ hits in the first period, and they rode the energy from them and the crowd to take a 2-0 lead on David Pastrnak’s power-play goal at 8:53 and Brandon Carlo’s even-strength goal at 15:12. But the Panthers otherwise felt good about how they were playing after outshooting the Bruins 15-5 in shots on goal and having a 28-12 advantage in shot attempts in the first period.

“We felt, we articulated the idea that you can’t control some things,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “[Boston goalie Jeremy] Swayman was real strong early in that game and then there was some strange things going on around the net, that sometimes you don’t get the breaks around the net. They were up two, but our game was right and mentally it was very important that we would stay with it and we wouldn’t see a change in our game …because that would have belied a lack of confidence in our game.”

Although the Panthers started slowly in the second period, not registering a shot on goal the opening 6:57, they gradually got back to their game as the period progressed and cut the Bruins lead to 2-1 on Anton Lundell’s goal at 14:48.

Evan Rodrigues set it up with a pass from below the goal line to Lundell in the left circle that sneaked in past Swayman short side.

“The first goal was obviously huge for our team, and we had some good chances early in the game, but it’s hard to score in the playoffs,” Lundell said. “But we just stuck with it and got some more chances and finally went it in.”

That gave Florida a burst of confidence heading into the second intermission that it would have more success in the third period.

“Our entire team had the belief that we were going to win this game,” Bennett said. “It was so positive in this locker room, and we knew we were getting it. It was just a matter of time.”

An interference penalty on Boston defenseman Hampus Lindholm 1:42 into the third gave the Panthers the opportunity they needed. Bennett scored on the resulting power play, knocking in the rebound of Lundell’s shot to tie it -- after the goal stood up to a Bruins’ challenge for goaltender interference.

Then, Barkov picked up a loose puck at the Boston blue line and cut down the slot to the net to beat Swayman blocker side to give Florida its first lead of the game. That 3-2 advantage was plenty with the Panthers playing suffocating defense in front of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida limited Boston to only two shots on goal in the third period and 18 shots in the game. It was the third straight game the Panthers held the Bruins to fewer than 20 shots on goal.

“I thought the guys again worked extremely hard,” Bobrovksy said. “Everything, the sticks, the forecheck, the D-zone, everything was outstanding. ‘Barky’s’ big goal, great goal, beautiful goal. It’s definitely a big win for us.”