Game 1 takeaways: Stellar Swayman leads Bruins to 5-1 win vs. Panthers originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins‘ success on the road in the Stanley Cup Playoffs continued in Game 1 of their second-round series versus the Florida Panthers on Monday night.
Just 48 hours after eliminating the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime of Game 7, the Bruins went down to Sunrise, Fla., and defeated the Panthers 5-1 at Amerant Bank Arena.
After a scoreless, but very entertaining first period, the Panthers got on the board first after capitalizing on a turnover in the Bruins’ zone. But the lead didn’t last long. Morgan Geekie equalized for the B’s just 67 seconds later. Boston scored two more times in the frame with goals from defensemen Mason Lohrei and Brandon Carlo. Those three goals came on the Bruins’ last three shots of the period.
Multiple defensemen scoring in the same game has been a rare occurrence for the B’s this season. It’s happened only twice in 90 games, and not since Nov. 14.
Justin Brazeau and Jake DeBrusk (empty net) scored for the Bruins in the third period. This offensive outburst, along with Jeremy Swayman‘s awesome performance in net (more on that below), powered the B’s to their third straight Game 1 win dating back to last season.
Game 2 of the series is Wednesday night in Florida. But before we look ahead to that matchup, here are three takeaways from Bruins-Panthers Game 1.
Jim Montgomery uses timeout perfectly
The Bruins could not have started the third period any worse. Hampus Lindholm took a bad penalty, which put the Bruins on the penalty kill. The Panthers nearly scored with the man advantage, but even after the power play ended, they continued to dominate puck possession and tallied 11 shots on net over the first six minutes of the period.
Bruins head coach Jim Mongomery recognized his team was losing its focus and wisely called a timeout with 14:12 left in the period. Montgomery had a fiery message for his team, while captain Brad Marchand also showed his displeasure with the team’s start to the period.
The timeout appeared to settle things down for the Bruins because they started to play much better, and less than two minutes later rookie forward Justin Brazeau increased their lead to 4-1 with a pretty deke on Sergei Bobrovsky.
Former Bruins forward P.J. Stock loved the timeout usage by Montgomery when his team was reeling.
What a time out!! That’s a coach that knows his team. Every team has 1 per game. I am so confused as to…