Domi, Raanta power Canes past Bruins to advance
Brunette faced his own questions at the start of the playoffs, just because of his title and the circumstances leading to it. He had been out of coaching for three years when Joel Quenneville approached him to join his coaching staff in South Florida and Brunette decided to give it one more shot. The 48year-old Canadian coached the forwards and ran the power play for more than two seasons and then replaced the head coach in the first month of this season when Quenneville had to resign amid revelations of his mishandling of a 2010 sexual-assault allegation while he was coaching the Chicago Blackhawks.
When Zito elevated Brunette into the interim role, no one was sure how long it would last. Even after Brunette coached in the All-Star Game and guided the Panthers to their first Presidents’ Trophy, Zito never removed the interim tag. If Florida flamed out in the first round again, it would be easy to move on from Brunette — maybe chalk up his incredible record to the talent on the roster and the systems Quenneville put in place.
In Round 1, Brunette took gambles, though, and they paid off. After the Panthers lost two of the first three games, Brunette shuffled his lineups — splitting up Ekblad and Weegar — and Florida won three in a row. In Game 6, he benched winger Anthony Duclair — a 30-goal scorer — in favor of Ryan Lomberg and the left wing, playing for the first time since Game 1, scored a game-tying goal in the second period.
“He brought what we were hoping he’d bring,” Brunette said. “He took advantage of his opportunity.”
On the decisive goal, Zito’s touch was evident. The scorer was Verhaeghe — whom the GM signed to a two-year, $2 million deal in his first offseason in 2020 — and the assists came from Giroux and defenseman Ben Chiarot, both of whom were midseason additions and cost Florida first-round picks.
Verhaeghe set a singleseason franchise record with 12 points in the playoff, and Giroux was second on the team with seven points. Nine of the 12 Panthers to score multiple points in the series were acquired by Zito in his less than two years as GM.
No one, however, has faced more scrutiny than Bobrovsky and he has been the fourth-best goalie of the playoffs so far, according to MoneyPuck.com’s goals saved above expected.
It was a long way from last year, when Bobrovsky gave up 10 goals on 63 shots and got benched after three games in the playoffs. It meant he went into this season without even a guarantee he’d be the starter — backup Spencer Knight, 21, began the year with Calder Memorial Trophy aspirations — and the seven-year, $70 million deal former general manager Dale Tallon signed him to looking worse than ever.
A year later, he’s a reason Florida can win it all. A run like this was exactly why the Panthers wanted him.
“He’s really dialed in,” Brunette said. “This is the best I’ve probably seen him.”
David Wilson: 305-376-3406, @DBWilson2
Max Domi scored twice in the second period, and Antti Raanta had 27 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Saturday to win the deciding Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.
Teuvo Teravainen also scored for the Hurricanes, who finally put away a Bruins team that had ousted them from the playoffs in two of the past three postseasons. That ended a series in which neither team could manage a road win, with the Hurricanes eventually getting the final word backed by yet another rowdy and loud home crowd.
Carolina advanced to the second round to face the winner of Sunday’s Game 7 between the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Domi was an unlikely star in this one. Carolina acquired him ahead of the March trade deadline, and he rewarded them by scoring the first postseason goals of his career. He also assisted on Teravainen’s goal with a perfect pass to the top of the crease for the first-period putaway.
Raanta, who had never started a postseason game before this series, was again steady in net. He had probably his best stop on a full-split save to deny Taylor Hall near the left post in the first period of a scoreless game.
Jake DeBrusk scored a second-period goal for the Bruins, while David Pastrnak had one with 21.7 seconds left with
Boston having pulled Jeremy Swayman for the extra attacker.
From there, the Hurricanes had to hang on through one final clockkilling shift to protect the lead before they could finally celebrate.
Swayman finished with 28 saves for Boston.
The Bruins found themselves playing catchup after Domi’s first goal, which had him skating in on the left side to bury a redirect attempt from Jordan Staal at 3:14 of the second.
Later, after DeBrusk had beaten Raanta from the top of the crease, Teravainen whipped a pass to Domi for a one-timer that blasted the puck past Swayman at
10:33 of the second for the 3-1 lead.
The Bruins, a tested veteran squad, were in the playoffs for the sixth straight season. That run included a sweep of the Hurricanes in the 2019 Eastern Conference finals, as well as a five-game win in the first round of the Toronto bubble a year later.