Bruins allow late goal before losing in OT of Game 7 to Panthers, ending historic season
BOSTON -- The Bruins may have put together a historic regular season, but their postseason is over after just seven games.
The Bruins -- who set all-time NHL records for wins and points in the regular season -- were eliminated Sunday night in a Game 7 on home ice against the Florida Panthers.
The Bruins rallied back from a 2-1 deficit to take a 3-2 lead in the third period, only to allow a last-minute game-tying goal. In overtime, Carter Verhaege ripped a wrist shot past Jeremy Swayman to end the game -- and the Bruins' season -- 8:35 into the overtime period.
Swayman, who was making his first start of the series, allowed four goals on 31 Florida shots.
The Panthers got the first lead of the game, when defenseman Brandon Montour flew up the middle of the ice and slipped a backhand past Swayman at the 12:33 mark of the first period.
That goal came on the power play, after Taylor Hall took a tripping penalty in the neutral zone in front of the Florida bench.
The Panthers doubled their lead just 1:14 into the second period, when some pressure on the forecheck led to a Hampus Lindholm giveaway along the wall. Anton Lundell sent a pass to Eetu Luostarinen in the slot, and Luostarinen one-touched the puck back to Sam Reinhart, who fired a shot past Swayman.
The Bruins cut that lead in half on the power play, though, with David Krejci firing a one-timer past Sergei Bobrovsky from the left faceoff circle.
Dmitry Orlov and Pavel Zacha picked up assists on the goal, which came with Marc Staal in the penalty box for tripping David Pastrnak.
That 2-1 score held through the second intermission, but the Bruins tied the game at 2-2 just 55 seconds into the third period. With Montour in the penalty box for roughing Pastrnak late in the second, Bertuzzi camped out in front of the night and impressively redirected an Orlov shot past a helpless Bobrovsky.
That goal was Bertuzzi's fifth of the series.
The Bruins rode that momentum, taking a 3-2 lead just a few minutes later. Brandon Carlo teed up a slap shot after entering the zone at the right point, and Bobrovsky coughed up a rebound that went directly to Pastrnak. One of the best goal scorers in the world, Pastrnak did not falter on this golden opportunity, scoring high to the blocker side to give Boston the lead and leading to the tense crowd erupting with emotion.
The Bruins were in position to come away with the win in regulation, but with the goalie pulled and coming out of a timeout, Florida scored the equalizer. After Patrice Bergeron blocked a shot, the puck bounced straight to Montour, who sent a puck toward the net. With some traffic in front, the puck appeared to get redirected by a stick on its way past Swayman to tie the game with less than a minute to play in regulation.
The score remained locked at 3-3 before the game headed to overtime.
After setting records with 65 wins and 135 points, the expectations in Boston were for a long playoff run and perhaps an early-summer parade for Lord Stanley's Cup through the streets of Boston. Instead, that postseason run is over without the Bruins winning a single series, a painful loss that's certain to linger for quite some time.
