They can’t handle the Florida heat

scored to 10, dating to Game 2 wednesday night in sunrise, fla. It also established a franchise record for the bruins; they never had given up more than nine straight goals in the same series.

All that considered, there was something even worse for the hobbled spoked-b franchise to consider.

for two periods, when they cobbled together a mere eight shots on net, the bruins were thoroughly denied the chance to generate a semblance of offense. The Panthers lived off their forechecking legs, their trademark, and the bruins couldn’t do anything to get out from under it.

bruins defensemen often were denied the chance to start plays out of their own end. forwards couldn’t handle passes tossed along the sidewall, with florida skaters repeatedly cutting plays short. The rare play that reached the neutral zone was promptly steered to noman’s land or transitioned the other way.

Postgame, coach Jim Montgomery said he needed to come up with a better game plan for his bruins. That’s what coaches say when they’ve seen their squad get dominated the way the Panthers overshadowed his charges in Game 3.

short of hijacking the Panthers team bus, or stuffing florida coach Paul Maurice inside a Dunkin’s delivery truck, there doesn’t appear any way to thwart that kind of smothering attack.

“Puck management . . . obviously, when they’re coming with that much speed and that amount of bodies, it’s hard for any D-corps to break out,” noted veteran forward Jake Debrusk. “That’s what they’re so good at. Everyone talks about their forecheck for a reason.”

The answer?

“I think that if we manage the puck better through the neutral zone,” added Debrusk, “and even the offensive zone, if we’re getting skin on guys, and play that in-your-face style that they play, I think that can give our defense that extra half a second to make a play. And then as wingers, we have to be outlets. we have to be in better position to chip pucks out and try to get in races that they might think twice.

“but I wouldn’t bet on them changing their game, and I don’t think we’re going to change ours, either. we just need to try to slow them down as much as possible. It’s obviously their biggest strength and we knew that coming in.”

Jakub lauko was among the few bruins’ forwards who flashed the requisite leg speed and willingness to at least match the pop in the florida forecheck. he should be back in there for Game 4.

“I think we have to look at the video and play more north,” said lauko, offering his ideas on how to get by the relentless forecheck. “we maybe had too many of those east-west plays. we need to be more straightforward, play more north, and be tight together and support each other.”

from his view on the blue line, brandon carlo thinks the cure “just dumbs down” to winning more battles.

“from our standpoint as defensemen, that means getting to more pucks first,” he added. “Move it to our guys as fast as possible . . . win your one-onone battles.

“They’re on top of us a lot. They’re getting good sticks on pucks — that is one of their strong suits. we have to work our way around that, and I think we can.”

It took the bruins more than half the game, until around the 14-minute mark of the second period, finally to burrow into the florida defense and establish some offensive presence.

And then, boom, the night went fully upside down when rookie defenseman Mason lohrei lifted a high stick into the face of steve lorentz, appearing to knock out one of the forward’s teeth. It absolutely took the teeth out of boston’s chance for a comeback.

Awarded a four-minute power play on lohrei’s infraction, the Panthers boosted their onegoal lead to 3-0, with the strikes by Tarasenko at 16:14 and then Verhaeghe 60 seconds later.

The night, and perhaps the series, was finished. It’s the first time the bruins have trailed in a series this postseason.

Up until the lohrei high stick, the bruins had been vastly outplayed. but then, finally, they knitted together back-toback strong shifts, nearly scored twice on sergei bobrovsky, and the Garden crowd showed some real life. The tying goal looked one shot or one florida slip-up away.

but the errant lohrei stick was devastating.

The Panthers truly dominated the night. They finished with a 33-16 shot advantage and a 64-44 lopsided lead in shot attempts. for the three games, they own a 224-132 advantage in shots attempts. That 92-shot differential represents 70 more shots than the bruins — an indication of the territorial edge in the series.

Kyle Okposo and Tarasenko were the Panthers two big pickups at the trade deadline. In Game 2, Okposo delivered the big smash on charlie McAvoy along the wall, McAvoy losing his stick, and the Panthers then scoring the key go-ahead goal.

And Tarasenko, acquired from Ottawa, supplied the 2-0 jaw-breaker in Game 3, nailing his sizzling wrister from the left wing circle to the far side — a sniper’s strike.

Right now, the Panthers have it all going on, and the bruins quickly need to turn ’em off.