3 Keys: Bruins at Panthers, Game 2 of Eastern 2nd Round
Boston looks to maintain response level; Florida seeks to rev up power play, even series
© Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI
SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers will try to even the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Boston Bruins with a win in Game 2 of the best-of-7 series at Amerant Bank Arena on Wednesday.
Boston scored five unanswered goals in a 5-1 win in Game 1 on Monday. Florida needs to clean up some of its mistakes and respond with a win at home before the series shifts to Boston for Games 3 and 4.
“We’ve got a process for how we process a game win or lose, and we went through that,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “So we take the things that we like, and we’ll identify those we want to make sure we’re good at. There was a bunch of things we didn’t care for, so we looked at those yesterday and we’ll be reminded of that before the game tonight and then you have learn and you have to grow.”
The Panthers lost 3-1 in Game 1 against the Bruins when they met in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season and responded with 6-3 win in Game 2 before going on to win that series in seven games. Boston expects Florida to elevate its level of play Wednesday, so knows it will need to do the same.
“We’ve got to be better with our execution,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “And then we’ve got to be physical, we’ve got to start on time, and we’ve got to play north. We’re worried about ourselves. We know they’re going to be better.”
Teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series are 351-56 (86.2 percent) in winning the series, including 3-1 in this season’s first round.
Here are 3 keys for Game 2:
1. Get traffic in front
The Bruins got to Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 1, scoring goals on three consecutive shots during a span of 6:47 in the second period to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead. Defenseman Brandon Carlo scored the third goal through a screen by forward Brad Marchand (along with Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad) in front with 21 seconds left in the period.
Florida hopes for similar results against Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman in Game 2. Swayman has been locked in throughout the playoffs, not allowing more than two goals in any of the seven games he has started, including stopping 38 of 39 shots in Game 1. But the Panthers believe they can make Swayman’s life more difficult, beginning with not letting him have as many clean looks at their shots.
“I feel like we had some chances, but I feel like we can do even more in front of him,” Florida center Anton Lundell said. “As a goalie, it’s hard to save it if you don’t see the puck, so that’s one big key, to get right in front of him and make it hard for him.”
2. Rebounding quickly
The Bruins have shown an ability to bounce back quickly after an opponent has scored -- though that has been a rarity in the playoffs. It happened in Game 7 of the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs, when Boston answered forward William Nylander’s goal at 9:01 of the third period with a goal by defenseman Hampus Lindholm goal 1:21 later. It happened again in Game 1, when Florida opened the scoring at 11:45 of the second period, followed 1:07 later by an answering goal from center Morgan Geekie.
“It was one of those things that I sort felt on the bench, 'That’s not going to bring me down, that’s not going to bring any of us down, that’s not the sort of thing that’s going to beat us tonight,' and sure enough we were able to get back,” Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “We’ve been battle-tested now and we’ve responded really well. I didn’t see our bench get down at all. I tried to go right to positivity, that that’s not going to beat us.”
And each time, it was an immediate momentum killer; as soon as the Maple Leafs and Panthers thought they had the upper hand, it was a crushing blow to get it snatched away that quickly.
3. Power-play execution
Boston killed off all three Florida power plays in Game 1 after going 11-for-11 on the penalty kill against its Atlantic Division foe in four victories during the regular-season meetings and winning each.
The Panthers moved the puck better and had four shots on goal during its third power play in Game 1, but want to be quicker with their decisions against the Bruins penalty kill, which is 23-for-24 (95.8 percent) in the playoffs.
“We were a bit slow,” Florida center Kevin Stenlund said. “We were a bit off overall. So if we’re sharp enough, it's going to go in.”
Boston also will look to improve on the power play after it was 0-for-2 in Game 1 to extend its man-advantage drought to 0-for-6 over its past four games.
Bruins projected lineup
Pavel Zacha -- Morgan Geekie -- David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand -- Charlie Coyle -- Jake DeBrusk
James van Riemsdyk -- Trent Frederic -- Justin Brazeau
John Beecher -- Jesper Boqvist -- Pat Maroon
Mason Lohrei -- Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm -- Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort -- Parker Wotherspoon
Jeremy Swayman
Linus Ullmark
Scratched: Kevin Shattenkirk, Jakub Lauko, Michael DiPietro, Matt Grzelcyk, Patrick Brown
Injured: Danton Heinen (undisclosed), Andrew Peeke (upper body)
Panthers projected lineup
Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues -- Kevin Stenlund -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Nick Cousins -- Steven Lorentz -- Kyle Okposo
Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola -- Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Dmitry Kulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz
Scratched: Ryan Lomberg, Tobias Bjornfot, Uvis Balinskis, Josh Mahura, Jonah Gadjovich, Spencer Knight, Rasmus Asplund, Mike Benning, Magnus Hellberg, Matt Kiersted, Will Lockwood, Mackie Samoskevich, Justin Sourdif
Injured: Sam Bennett (upper body)
Status report
Boqvist returns to center Boston’s fourth line after Brown replaced him for Game 1. “He was nursing some things,” Montgomery said. “He’s good to go tonight.” … Heinen, a center, and Peeke, a defenseman, skated again Wednesday morning, but remain out. … The Panthers will dress the same lineup they used in a 5-1 loss in Game 1 on Monday. ... Bennett is expected to return when the series moves to Boston for Games 3 and 4; the center has been out two weeks after being injured against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 2 of the first round.
NHL.com staff writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this report
