By: Tom Calautti | @TCalauttis
Brad Marchand made his heralded return to TD Garden as the Florida Panthers took on the Boston Bruins in their first head-to-head matchup of the season. The Black and Gold valiantly fought back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 but eventually fell 4-3 with under a minute left. Here’s how it went down:
Marchand Makes His Move
It didn’t take long for the TD Garden faithful to make their feelings known to Brad Marchand. The ‘little ball of hate’ took the ice for warm-ups about 45 minutes before puck drop and the early birds in the crowd serenaded him with a prolonged set of cheers.
That adulation continued when public address announcer Jake Zimmer introduced the Panthers’ starting lineup. Linemates Eetu Luosterinen and Anton Lundell were booed mercilessly while Marchand’s name was met with a symphony praise.
It didn’t take long for the former Bruins captain to put his stamp on the game. 33 seconds into the contest he drew a tripping penalty which put the Panthers on the power play. Less than half a minute later, Florida potted the opening goal of the game with Marchand assisting on a Mackie Samoskevich tally. The game settled into a somewhat of a back-and-forth lull until the first TV timeout, then the waterworks started. At that point, a tribute video for Marchand started playing on the TD Garden Jumbotron, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
“I knew it was going to hit me the way it did,” said Marchand following the game. “It was extremely touching. I’m so grateful for the moment and very appreciative for what the Bruins did, putting that together.”
He made sure to thank the fans specifically for the love and support they showed during his tribute. “I love the fans here. They’re special, they’re an incredible group…it was a very very special night for me and my family.”
Boston Storms Back
The next goal didn’t come until early in the second period when former Bruin AJ Greer ripped a shot past Jeremy Swayman to Florida up 2-0. Both teams would go scoreless for the rest of the second frame, and the Black and Gold seemed to be struggling for momentum heading into the locker room.
That all changed in the first five minutes of the third period. After Boston started generating some high-danger chances for the first time all night, their persistence paid off and they cut the lead in half. Viktor Arvidsson won a puck into the low slot area where Casey Mittlestadt tapped it over to Pavel Zacha for an open-net tap-in.
The Bruins kept their foot on the gas early in the third, earning their fifth powerplay of the game. David Pastrnak carried the puck across the blue line and threw a shot with purpose into the slot. Elias Lindholm redirected it through the legs of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and tied the game at two.
Pandemonium to Finish
This was easily the most exciting period of Bruins hockey so far this season. After Lindholm knotted the game at two Marchand struck again, finding a streaking Luostarinen who blew by Mason Lohrei and sauced a puck up over Swayman’s shoulder to retake the lead.
The game stayed 3-2 until the final two minutes. With Boston staring down the barrel of a five-game losing streak, head coach Marco Sturm pulled his goalie in a last ditch effort to salvage a point. After a faceoff win Bobrovsky fought off a Pastrnak one-timer only for the rebound to land on the stick of Mittlestadt who found Geekie in front for the equalizer with 1:31 remaining.
The game seemed poised for overtime when disaster struck. Carter Verhaege, with only 30 seconds remaining fired a wrist shot which deflected off the far post. Andrew Peeke attempted to whip the puck out of danger, unfortunately for him the ‘Hockey Gods’ had other ideas. The puck ended up deflecting off of Peeke’s shin pad and ended up in the back of the net.
Boston fell 4-3 and has now lost five straight games. They’ll look to get back in the win column on Thursday against the Ducks
Game Notes
- At one point Tanner Jeannot looked like he cut into the Florida lead. He stuffed a puck past Bobrovsky near the post but the officials immediately waved the goal off.
- Casey Mittlestadt, Pavel Zacha, and David Pastrnak all had multi-point games. Zacha is now up to 2-6-8 in 8 games this season.
- The Bruins played one of their better 5v5 games this season despite the result. At even strength they out-attempted Florida 53-38, outchanced them 19-13, and won the high-danger battle 8-7.
- Marco Sturm said after the game that Hampus Lindholm told him he was not good to go following morning skate.
- Sturm called out Mason Lohrei following the game, saying that two of Florida’s goals were on him.
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