Panthers rally past Bruins, take lead
NEW YORK: The Florida Panthers scored twice in the third period to cap a comeback from a two-goal deficit, giving them a 3-2 win over the hosts Boston Bruins on Sunday in Game Four of an Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Anton Lundell posted a goal and an assist while Sam Bennett and Aleksander Barkov both scored in the final frame to lift the Panthers to a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Evan Rodrigues dished out a pair of assists for Florida.
The Panthers, who posted the fifth multi-goal comeback win in their postseason history, have an opportunity to clinch the series today in Game Five in Sunrise, Flaorida.
“Sometimes you don’t get the breaks around the net,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “They were up two, but our game was right. Mentally, it’s very important that we would stay with it and we wouldn’t see a change in our game.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 16 saves in Florida’s net.
David Pastrnak and Brandon Carlo scored Boston’s goals, and Jeremy Swayman stopped 38 shots.
The Panthers had a 41-18 edge in shots and went 1-for-6 on the power play.
Bennett tied the game at 3:41 minutes of the third when a bouncing puck came to him at the left crease for a tap-in on the power play. Bennett appeared to cross-check Charlie Coyle into Swayman to create the open lane to the goal, but Boston’s challenge for goaltender interference was unsuccessful.
“This is a tough building to play in, but we just stuck with it,” Bobrovsky said. “In the first period, even though they had two goals, we liked our chances and we just kept going, kept pushing and getting better.”
The score flipped Florida’s way for the first time at 7:31 minutes, as Barkov slipped down the slot after corralling a deflected puck at centre ice and beat Swayman over his blocker.
Two Boston power plays went by the boards after Florida’s go-ahead goal, including a six-on-four with Swayman pulled following an Aaron Ekblad interference call in the final minute.
CANUCKS TAKE CONTROL
Arturs Silovs made a career-high 42 saves — including 21 in the third period — and the visiting Vancouver Canucks hung on to beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in Game Three of their Western Conference semi-final series on Sunday.
Brock Boeser had two goals and an assist for the Canucks, who lead the series 2-1. Game Four of the best-ofseven series is today in Edmonton.
Elias Lindholm scored twice and JT Miller and Quinn Hughes each had two assists for Vancouver, the No.1 seed from the Pacific Division.
Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm all posted a goal and an assist for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner allowed four goals on 15 shots for the Oilers before being lifted after two periods. Calvin Pickard made three saves for Edmonton.
RESULTS
(home team in CAPS)
Florida 3 BOSTON 2 (Florida lead series 3-1), Vancouver 4 EDMONTON 3 (Vancouver lead series 2-1)