Bruins black and blue after Panthers’ rout in Game 3
ly better than us and I got to come up with a better game plan.”
A second-period bruins surge came to a bloody halt when Mason lohrei was hit for a high-sticking double minor that opened a cut on Steven lorentz’s face.
boston had killed 10 of florida’s first 11 power plays in the series, but Paul Maurice’s club clicked with lohrei in the box, scoring twice (Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe) to take a commanding 3-0 lead into the third.
Call their first goal a tic-tacTarasenko special.
oliver ekman-larsson started the play, passing to Sam bennett, who fed Tarasenko at the circle where the Russian sniper went top shelf on Jeremy Swayman (27 saves).
The second was a backbreaker and eventual game-winner as Verhaeghe deflected a net-front feed from Matthew Tkachuk.
“I thought we were coming and unfortunately we got the high stick in a stick battle fighting for a puck and that really changed the game,” said Montgomery.
Jakub lauko, last seen in the Spoked b in Game 2 of the Toronto series, tried to drag his teammates into the fight with a nice rush and finish, crashing into Sergei bobrovsky with the help of defenseman Aaron ekblad early in the third.
All he got for his troubles, however, was a minor for goalie interference that resulted in another Panther power-play goal, this one from brandon Montour.
It was florida’s 10th straight goal in the series after Charlie Coyle’s strike to open Game 2. The bruins had never before given up 10 unanswered goals in the postseason.
“I was trying to get to the net and just ended up in the goalie,” said lauko. “I don’t know. I felt that the defenseman was holding me and kind of pushing me inside, so I don’t know, what am I supposed to do to avoid it?”
The play did spark a surge from the bruins, who cut the deficit to 4-2 with goals from lauko and Jake Debrusk.
with an extra attacker on because of a delayed penalty, lauko wristed one from the dot over bobrovsky’s shoulder for his first career playoff goal.
Debrusk then zipped a wrister from the circle off a feed from lohrei. It was Debrusk’s team-high fifth of the postseason.
Sam Reinhart deposited an empty-netter before Rodrigues, the former boston University standout, scored his second of the night — another power-play job with Andrew Peeke in the bin for a cross-check.
“Definitely need to be better at the net front there, myself especially,” said defenseman brandon Carlo when asked about the penalty-kill problems. “Yeah, there were some problems there. They created some zone time when we didn’t get our clears. You want to get the puck down 200 feet when you can, but we’ll look at the video and try and learn from there.”
with such a quick turnaround, Montgomery said the short-term plan is simple.
“well, it’s every two days and that’s the way the schedule is in the playoffs,” said the coach. “we get a good night’s sleep, come to the rink [Saturday], get better, and we’ll get ready for Game 4.”