Game 5: Panthers stay alive in series with 4-3 overtime win in Boston

On the brink of elimination and a goal away from their season coming to an end, the Florida Panthers lived to fight another day after their Game 5, 4-3 overtime win against the Boston Bruins at the TD Garden Wednesday night. 

A back and forth game saw the Panthers score the first goal of the game for just the second time in the series. The team that scored first through the first four games ended up winning.

8:26 into the first, Anthony Duclair opened the scoring. Carter Verhaeghe carried the puck behind the Bruins net, taking goaltender Linus Ullmark out of position. Duclair batted Verhaeghe’s shot-pass out of mid-air to score his first goal of the playoffs. 

The Panthers held onto their one goal lead into the first intermission, but it took Boston just a few minutes out of the break to tie the game, off of a Brad Marchand power play goal.

Boston flat out dominated the second period, outshooting the Panthers 18-8. The Panthers were holding onto the tie until the dying minutes of the period where playoff Sam Bennett picked up his third goal of the series to give Florida a 2-1 lead.

Florida led the Bruins after the first two periods for the first time all series. 

A big story of tonight’s game was Boston’s resilience all night. Three times the Panthers took the lead in regulation and three times the Bruins tied the game. 

With the game dwindling down, the Panthers were called for too many men on the ice with 3:35 left in a 3-3 game. The Bruins who had been peppering Sergei Bobrovsky all night had a chance to basically end the game if they could score their third power play goal of the night. 

The Panthers came up strong on the kill and overtime seemed on the horizon in Boston. 

With 7.7 seconds left in the third, Florida had a faceoff in the Bruins zone. It looked like the Panthers would have the last chance of regulation, but that wasn’t the case. Florida fumbled at the blue line and Marchand turned on the jets to get a last second breakaway on Bobrovsky. 

With about a second left in regulation, Marchand ripped what would have been the game winning shot towards Bobrovsky. The Panthers goalie stood tall and denied Marchand for his 40th save of the game. He finished the night with 44 saves.

The teams were heading to overtime for the first time in the series. 

Now in sudden death OT, both teams were expected to play it carefully and only take a chance if the coast was clear. 

Six minutes into overtime, Verhaeghe chased down a puck behind the Bruins net on the forecheck. A bad passing attempt by Ullmark found its way to Verhaeghe rather than a Bruins player. 

Verhaeghe’s off angle shot found its way to Matthew Tkachuk in front of goal and the Panthers star forward iced the game with the overtime winner.

The Panthers were able to win their second playoff game on the road in Boston to force a Game 6 back at home in Sunrise on Friday with the series at 3-2 in favor of the Bruins.