By Zachary McMahon –
The Boston Bruins played Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night. The Bruins took Game 1 after scoring five unanswered goals in that game on Monday.
The Bruins led in the first period when Charlie Coyle scored his first goal of the playoffs off assists from Brad Marchand and Pavel Zacha. Marchand got his 10th point of the playoffs which made it his ninth postseason with 10+ points, which is tied for seventh most all-time with Nicklas Lidstrom and Jari Kurri.
Then the Panthers went off for six unanswered goals across the second and third periods, including two from Aleksander Barkov as they routed the Bruins 6-1.
In the third period however, there were lots of brawls between the two teams, as both sides racked up serious penalty minutes.
There were 12 players from both sides who got misconduct penalties due to the fights. With Pat Maroon, Justin Brazeau, Trent Frederic, James van Riemsdyk, Brad Marchand, Charlie MacAvoy, and David Pastrnak all taking miscounducts for the Bruins. The most serious might by Pastrnak as he had a fight with Matthew Tkachuk as after he was pulled from the fight, he had accidentally punched one of the referees as he was trying to get back at Tkachuk who was smothered with the linesman, as Pastrnak faces a possible fine and/or suspension for his actions.
In the game the Bruins had 87 penalty minutes while the Panthers had 71. The Bruins had the most penalty minutes in a playoff game since 1988 when they had 108 in Game 3 of the playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres. Meanwhile, the Panthers had the second-most penalty minutes in a playoff game as they had 84 in Game 2 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Along with his two goals, Barkov also had two assists, where in the last three games he’s had four points, and four assists for a total of eight points, which made him the third player in Panthers playoff history who had eight or more points in a three-game span, joining Carter Verhaeghe in 2022 when he scored nine, and former Bruin Reilly Smith in 2016 when he scored eight.
Sam Reinhart had four assists in the game which set a Panther playoff record for most in a game.
Linus Ullmark stepped in relief of Jeremy Swayman after Eetu Luostarinen scored early in the third period. That was his first appearance in relief in the playoffs, as he started in the Game 2 loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ullmark had 10 saves on eight shots in 18:32 in relief of Swayman.
The Panthers have now outscored the Bruins 11-10 through two games as the Bruins will try to stop the momentum from the Panthers as they will both travel up to Boston to play in Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday.
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