SUNRISE, Fla. — The Bruins didn’t look much like the team that won 65 regular-season games in the first two games of this playoff series. But that dominant team showed up on on Friday night at Florida Live Arena, even though two players who’ve been pillars of the Bruins' success were not in uniform.
The Bruins were without Patrice Bergeron for the third straight game and then David Krejci was a late scratch (upper body), but the B’s dispatched the Florida Panthers with machine-like efficiency (until some late mistakes), beating the Cats, 4-2, to take a 2-1 series lead.
Linus Ullmark, who did not participate in the morning skate, was a game-time decision but he got the start and did the job.
Perhaps the hockey gods looked at all that and decided to shine some good fortune on the B’s just 2:26 into the game. That’s when Alex Lyon gave the B’s the mother of all soft goals. Taylor Hall gained the offensive zone on the right side, cut to his left and, from the top of the circle, sailed a wrist shot that Lyon waved his glove at but could not stop.
Both teams had unsuccessful power plays in the first in which the Panthers outshot the Bruins 8-7. The B’s had a great chance that didn’t count as a shot on net when Dmitry Orlov was in deep behind the net and fed Trent Frederic at the top of the crease, but Marc Staal appeared to get his stick on Frederic’s shot to deflect it out of play.
Whatever had been bothering Ullmark, meanwhile, was not evident in the first period as he did a good job of controlling the shots that came his way.
The Bruins stormed out of the gate for the second period and got numerous chances, finally doubling their lead at 6:00. Brad Marchand beat Marc Staal in a puck battle along the right boards and curled out high near the point. He snapped it toward the net, where Charlie Coyle was standing on the at top of the crease to deflect it past Lyon for the 2-0 lead.
The Panthers lost defenseman Aaron Ekblad after he ran straight into Charlie McAvoy on a Panthers rush. The interference call was missed, but Ekblad was slow to get up and went straight to the room when he did. He came back briefly but did not come out for the third period.
After a little hesitation in the defensive zone between Jake DeBrusk and Brandon Carlo, the defenseman was forced to take a holding penalty to prevent a scoring chance. On the kill, the Bruins had chance to make it 3-0 on a short-handed bid when Tomas Nosek and Pavel Zacha broke out on a 2-on-1, but Lyon made a terrific save on Zacha to keep the game within striking distance for the Panthers going into the third.
The Bruins continued their strong work in the the third until Tyler Bertuzzi sent David Pastrnak away on a break up the left side and the B’s sharpshooter ended Lyon’s night with a low wrist shot that beat the goalie under the glove with 11:28 remaining. Lyon was yanked for Sergei Bobrovsky at that point.
It didn’t help. Nick Foligno, who looked like he was going to be a healthy scratch before Krejci was scratched, made it 4-0 with 8:15 left when he took a feed from Hall and beat Bobrovsky with a backhander.
Gustav Forsling got one back with a short-handed goal with 5:19 left when Orlov got caught deep in the offensive zone.
That opened the door for the Panthers, who pulled Bobrovsky with 4:34 left and, in a scramble Sam Reinhart jammed home a loose puck to make it a two-goal game.
But that’s as close as the Panthers could get.
