The Boston Bruins scored the first four goals of the game on Friday en route to a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers and take a 2-1 lead in their opening round series.
“We saw Boston Bruins hockey today,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who insisted there were “no passengers” on his team unlike last game.
The Panthers came back with two goals in the final six minutes of the game, but the regular season champions managed to protect their lead.
After missing morning practice and being deemed a doubt to play the game, Linus Ullmark made 28 saves in front of the Bruins net.
Taylor Hall put the Bruins in charge after just 2:26 in the first, Charlie Coyle added by redirecting a shot from Brad Marchand in the second and David Pastrnak and Nick Foligno put the Bruins away with two quick goals in middle of third.
Dmitry Orlov had two assists for the Bruins.
Gustav Forsling deprived Ullmark of its first playoff shutout with 5:29 remaining and Sam Reinhart cut the deficit to one two with 4:01 remaining.
Aaron Ekblad made his way to the locker room after colliding hard with Charlie McAvoy midway through second. He quickly returned to the bench for the Panthers, but made just two second-half appearances and was not on the bench with his teammates in the third.
“A lot of the time in playoff hockey you forget and move on, maybe you learn a little bit from the situation,” Reinhart said. “Every day is a new challenge. We will be back on Sunday ready to go. ”
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said after the game that he would know more about Ekblad’s condition on Saturday.
Pastrnak’s goal was his second of the series and prompted a goalie change for the Panthers. Then $10 million man Sergei Bobrovsky entered the series in relief to Alex Lyon, who gave up three times on 26 shots.
Bobrovsky blocked eight of nine shots aimed at him.
The fourth game will be held Sunday afternoon, still in Florida.
