Bruins looking to move on from horrific third period that cost them Game 2 vs. Panthers
BOSTON -- When the Bruins were marching their way to the best regular season record and point total in NHL history, they were a dominant third-period team. Boston usually saved its best for the last 20 minutes of a contest.
That was the case in Monday night's Game 1 against the Panthers, when Boston completely shut down Florida to earn a 3-1 win. It was not the case Wednesday night in Game 2, when Boston completely collapsed down the stretch to fall 6-3 and lose home-ice in the series.
The period started with the scored knotted at 2-2, but that quickly changed when Brandon Mountour beat Linus Ullmark just 22 seconds into the frame. Six-plus minutes later, the Panthers had a 4-2 lead when Carter Verhaeghe lit the lamp, and five minutes after that, Mountour added his second of the game.
The Bruins were outscored 4-1 in the third, with their only goal a meaningless tally by Taylor Hall with just over a minute left. The Panthers outshot the Bruins 11-6 over the final 20 minutes on Wednesday night.
Boston didn't play particularly great at any point in the game, getting off to another sluggish start. But the game remained scoreless over the first 20 minutes before the scoring started in the second. The Bruins never led, fighting back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits in the second period before falling apart in the third.
The Panthers were on the attack throughout, and the Bruins did not do themselves any favors, either. Boston turned the puck over 15 times, with two of those turnovers leading directly to Florida goals. A dozen Bruins players committed at least one giveaway on Wednesday, with Tyler Bertuzzi leading the way with three.
"It wasn't our best," said Brad Marchand, who scored a short-handed goal to make it a 1-1 game in the second. "I thought we did a good job battling back in the first two. The third got away from us. It would've been nice to have a couple of plays back. They played really hard. They played very desperate, played a really complete game."
The Panthers were the aggressors throughout, and though the Bruins admirably kept their cool until the final minutes, they didn't do much to fight back when they still had a puncher's chance in the game.
"They played fast. They were moving pucks up and getting on the forecheck hard and being physical," said Marchand. "A big part of it was them, and we forced a few plays. It'd be nice to have back. I definitely didn't take care of pucks at some point. You got to give them credit, they played hard."
"I didn't think we regrouped or reset," said head coach Jim Montgomery. "Most of the year, we've been able to take a breath, reset, and go back to our game. We didn't go back to our game when it went 4-2. I thought we got back to our game in the first two periods, every time we fell behind we got back to our game."
The B's will look to get back to their game Friday night when the series shifts to Florida for Game 3. They will likely have to play without Patrice Bergeron again, as the captain continues to deal with an upper-body injury that has sidelined him for the first two games.
While splitting the first two games at home is not ideal for the best team in hockey, it could be some much-needed adversity for a team that easily dominated the regular season. The Bruins were punched in the face on Wednesday, and now they're eager to show they can bounce back and deliver a few punches of their own.
"We knew it was gonna be a hard series," said Marchand. "Definitely not one we expected to walk through. They play well at home, so we have our work cut out for us. We have to make sure that we bring our best next game. It's one day at a time in playoffs. You can't look at tonight. And doesn't matter if we lost 10-0 or we lost in overtime. A loss is a loss, a win is a win. We move on."
The Bruins played a lot of ugly hockey on Wednesday, which we didn't see much of during the regular season. But they are not going to dwell too much on one horrific game. The goal now is to learn from it, burn the tape, and then play a much better game Friday night in Florida.
"We'll forget about this one now and start regrouping and see where we can improve," Marchand added. "But if we don't bring our best game, it's going to be a tough trip. We got to make sure we're ready for the next one."
