*Photo from WCVB TV*
Boston leads series 3-2
How's that for a season saver? Carter Verhaeghe had 3 assists, Matthew Tkachuk won the game, and the Florida Panthers beat the Boston Bruins 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday night in Boston.
In this series, the home team has lost 4 of the 5 games in this series, all in a row. This time, the Panthers kept their season alive with the win on the road and forced a game 6 in the series. Verhaeghe and Tkachuk were the multi point scorers for the Panthers.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said of the win that "We've been so close to elimination from January on that we're pretty good at taking a few punches if we have to. I liked our overtime. I liked the way we approached it. So we learned from it, and we continue to try to stay out of the penalty box, and then get off the mat."
Anthony Duclair scored the only goal of the first period, making it 1-0 Panthers with Verhaeghe assisting. Brad Marchand scored on the power play 2:27 into the second period for the Bruins to tie the score 1-1. Sam Bennett then scored with 1:08 left in the second, leaving the Panthers ahead 2-1 after two periods.
Patrice Bergeron scored on the power play 4:33 into the 3rd period for the Bruins, tying the game 2-2. Sam Reinhart then put the Panthers ahead 3-2 just 41 seconds later. At the 9:16 mark of the 3rd, Taylor Hall tied the game for the Bruins to eventually force overtime. Tkachuk scored 6:05 into the extra frame to keep the Panthers alive.
Tkachuk said after the game "Super excited. Live to fight another day. Bobrovsky makes a heck of a save, otherwise our season's over, and then we go out and we're able to score pretty early in overtime. Things happen fast in playoffs, and now they've got to come down to Florida to play another one."
Sergei Bobrovsky got the start for the Panthers with their season on the line, delivering a key win to keep them going. Bobrovsky stopped 44 of the 47 shots that the Bruins had, which was good for a .936 save percentage.
Getting the start for the Bruins was Linus Ullmark, who didn't have a high shot volume but got stuck with the loss. Ullmark turned aside 21 out of the 25 shots on goal from the Panthers, recording a .840 save percentage.
Bergeron said of the loss that "You don't want to give them freebies, if you will. I think that's who we are. Our structure has always been something that gives us success, and I think learning from that and when we're able to kind of move north-south and straight lines we're able to get the puck behind and generate a little bit more."
Up next, game 6 is on Friday night back down in Florida. The Bruins need a win to move on to the second round, while the Panthers need to win to send the series to a deciding game 7.
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