The packed Florida crowd went absolutely wild during the playing of the national anthem. Singing it loudly, sometimes screaming, the energy in the building was palpable. Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman looked at those fans during one song with the most confident expression on his face.
It seemed like he knew they were going to let him be quiet for most of the evening. And he did just that. Swayman’s impressive postseason continued by stopping 38 shots, Brandon Carlo scored just hours after his wife gave birth to their son and the Bruins beat the Panthers 5-1 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series on Monday night.
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“I was really impressed that we all didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Swayman said. “It was great to see physically, mentally and everything and I’m really excited for what’s to come.” Morgan Geekie, Mason Lohrey, Justin Brazeau and Jake DeBrusk also scored for Boston, which improved their record to 5-0-0 against the Panthers this season.
Pavel Zacha had two efforts for the Bruins, who scored three goals in the final 7:08 of the second to erase a 1-0 deficit and take control. Swayman has been in net in all five of Boston’s wins so far in these playoffs and was once again spectacular — just as he was against Toronto in the Round 1 series, which ended with a Game 7 overtime thriller Saturday night.
He stopped all seven shots on Florida’s three power plays, improving to the best stats of any netminder so far in these playoffs. Through seven playoffs, Swayman has made a league-best 210 saves with a tough goals-against average of 1.42.
“We made a lot of saves,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “If Jeremy Swayman wasn’t there, it would have been a very close game and they probably would have come out on top.” Matthew Tkachuk scored for Florida, which has recovered from a 1-0 deficit to win an NHL playoff series only twice in the past nine chances – one of those against Boston in Round 1 last year. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots for the Panthers, who were playing in a motion for the first time.
Game 2 is Wednesday night at Sunrise. “I didn’t care about our game,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “And I think we can fix a big part of the ideals that we didn’t like.” It was the first of five lopsided games this season between clubs that finished 1-2 in the Atlantic Division – first with Florida on 110 points and second with Boston on 109 points. Boston won all of them in the regular season, three by one goal and the other by two, but Florida was either tied or ahead 78% of the time in those games.
This one was different. After Boston took the lead, the Bruins — who have now fully recovered from a 1-0 deficit in four of five games with Florida this season — became completely airtight defensively. “We had a couple of hours and maybe tonight we weren’t as tough, the members we needed,” Tkachuk said. “And they played well.”
Swayman gave away the game’s first goal to Tkachuk, the Florida star’s fourth goal of the postseason, midway through the second after he and Bobrovsky were in a goalie duel for the first 31 minutes. That didn’t last long as a deficit.
It took Boston just 67 seconds to equalize, with Geekie clearing a flying puck in front. And 3:25 later, when Lohr scored his first playoff goal from a tough angle over Bobrovsky’s shoulder. That set the stage for Carlo to have a day he’ll never forget.
He was not on the flight to South Florida with the Bruins on Sunday because his wife, Mason, was due to give birth. She gave birth to their son, Crew, on Monday morning so Carlo could board the plane for the three-hour trip south.
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He arrived at the arena after the rest of his teammates, but in time to join the lineup — and he scored with 21 seconds left to give his club a 3-1 lead. “Definitely wanted to play,” Carlo said. “And I’m really glad I played.” Brazeau got behind the Florida defense and beat Bobrovsky with a backhander with 12:47 left. The Panthers fouled Bobrovsky at 5:30, and DeBrusk added an empty-netter about 2 minutes later.
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