Linus Ullmark explains his brutal turnover from Bruins' OT loss

BOSTON -- Did that just happen? And how did that happen?

That was, in short, the reaction inside TD Garden on Wednesday night, when the life was sucked out of the building in an instant after Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark committed a turnover behind his own net, leading directly to the game-winning goal in overtime. Instead of finishing off the Panthers in five games, the Bruins will now head to Florida to try to close the series on Friday night.

Ullmark has been the best goaltender in the NHL all season, and he's a near-certainty to win the Vezina Trophy. Yet he was less than excellent on this night, making just 21 saves on 25 shots faced and, of course, committing that critical turnover.

While the fans trodding slowly out of the Garden expressed a range of negative emotions while exiting their seats, Ullmark himself was not exactly crestfallen inside the losing locker room. In fact, the 29-year-old Swede was borderline chipper.

"Oh yeah, it's gonna be great," Ullmark said of the upcoming Game 6. "This is what we play for. Some you win, some you lose."

And how will Ullmark and his teammates prepare for that Game 6?

"Same as we got ready for this game and the game before that. We're gonna go back, have a good night's sleep, wake up, see the sunshine again, and then we travel to Florida and then go back at it," Ullmark said.

As for the game-losing gaffe, Ullmark didn't shy away from explaining what happened.

"I tried to get back in the net, and then he sends it in. You know, I tried to put myself in a position where he can't bank it off me. Unfortunately, it hits my skate, and then it ends up in the wrong hands," Ullmark said. "And from there it was kind of a situation where I couldn't get back into position. And you know, he takes it by and puts it in."

Later in his media scrum, Ullmark was asked again to explain what happened. Instead of deferring to his previous answer, Ullmark took the reporter through the whole process yet again.

"OK, just went out there, tried to play it on the back and try to bypass [Carter Verhaeghe] and he makes a good read, takes it, hits it into the middle, hits my skate, goes to whoever it was [Tkachuk], makes a play and shoots it in the net," Ullmark said. "That's what happened."

As for what he possibly could have done better, Ullmark didn't shy away from that topic, either.

"I don't know. I have to look at it tonight or tomorrow and see what I could have done better. You know, maybe I should have rimmed it, maybe I should have went up the middle. It's hard to say," Ullmark said. "I thought that was the best play. That's it. And it ended up being, you know, the worst play. ... That happened, and we can all think about what I should have done or could have done. But also, maybe if I did that, maybe it would have been the same results. Who knows? This is the life of hockey and this is the game sometimes."

Considering how solid he's been all year long, it goes without saying that Ullmark won't be losing any support within the locker room.

"Oh I mean, he's been a rock for us all year," said captain Patrice Bergeron, who scored a goal in his return to the lineup. "Obviously, he's given us a chance to win every time he steps out there. He can't be too hard on himself. Obviously, we're a team. It's about what we do together on the ice as a unit of six and go from there."

Bergeron added: "He's a tremendous goalie. He's probably the best goalie and he's probably going to win the Vezina this year, so I think we're all there for each other."

As for how Ullmark moves on, he said it's all about having the mind of a goldfish.

"It is all about, do a little bit of, what's it called? Going inside of ourselves, thinking about what we could have done better, and then look at the -- for me -- is looking at the footage," Ullmark said. "Try to take the good and positive things out of this game and then bring that in for Game 6."