By: Andrew Bluestein | Follow Me On Twitter @adbblue
The Boston Bruins won game one over the Florida Panthers 5-1. Coming off the high of a game seven overtime win, the Bruins kept the train on the tracks with a convincing victory.
After the second period ended, the road team completely controlled the game. They focused on their positional alignment, which led to clogging up the middle and keeping the Panthers outside to the perimeter, and it capped off a true team victory.
First Period
It was a solid start for the Bruins, and David Pastrnak was the leader, generating an offensive zone face-off on the first shift. Florida answered off the rush, and Swayman made a spectacular rebound save on Anton Lindell. Pastrnak then had another powerful wrist shot on the net that clanged off the bend in the pipe. Boston continued to pour it on and almost capitalized when Sergei Bobrovsky misplayed the puck behind his net, but he recovered and froze it.
Florida had the first power play of the series after recent Providence call-up Patrick Brown was given a holding minor, but the Bruins killed it off. The best chance of the opening frame came on a great effort by Pastrnak, who was alone and was denied by Bobrovsky. With 0:59 left, the Black and Gold drew their first penalty. The clock ran out, ending with a scoreless first period. Boston had the shots on goal advantage 13-9, and both goaltenders were stellar.
Second Period
The Bruins opened the period with 1:01 of power play time but could not get things going, and the time ticked off the clock. Aaron Ekblad walked in from the point with a grade-A look, but Swayman shut the door. The physicality finally began to ramp up after a brief scrum ended in front of Bobrovsky followingw a whistle. The Panthers opened the scoring after a Charlie McAvoy defensive turnover. Matthew Tkachuk was the beneficiary and gave his team a 1-0 lead, beating Swayman on a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle.
The Bruins responded 1:07 later when Morgan Geekie tied the game 1-1 on a roof job created by Pastrnak, feeding Pavel Zacha down low and winning a positional battle. After killing their second penalty in the game, Boston took the lead on a remarkable top-shelf shot by defenseman Mason Lohrei, which made the game 2-1.
Parker Wotherspoon made a slick feed to the rookie setting up the goal. After giving birth to his first son and arriving in Florida just two hours before puck drop, Brandon Carlo gave the Bruins a 3-1 lead on a bar-down snipe. Trent Frederic was persistent and able to involve Charlie Coyle, who set up the strike. Florida leads on the shots on goal department 15-7.
Third Period
At the beginning of the period, the Panthers controlled the game. Hampus Lindholm’s call for holding the stick Brandon earned them a power play. The penalty killers stepped up with some help from Swayman between the pipes. Justin Brazeau, who went undrafted, recorded his first career playoff goal, swirled up by a James van Riemsdyk chip pass. He beat Bobrovsky in alone with a power move to the net.
This extended the lead to 4-1. From then on, the game had a steady tempo and the Bruins controlled things. Jake DeBrusk capped things off with an empty netter to make it a 5-1 score, which was the final. Game two is on Wednesday night at 7:30. It will again be broadcast on ESPN.
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