Panthers defeat Bruins 7-5, force Game 7 in Boston

SUNRISE — Facing elimination for a second straight game, The Florida Panthers kept their season alive once again on Friday night, defeating the Boston Bruins 7-5 in Game 6 at FLA Live Arena. 

Coming off a huge 4-3 overtime win in Boston on Wednesday, the Panthers returned home, where they were yet to win a playoff game this year.

The Panthers struck first and early in tonight’s contest, which has been important all series as the team to score first won all the previous five games. Brandon Montour’s 4-on-3 powerplay goal beat Linus Ullmark just 2:01 into the game. 

Florida wasn’t able to hold onto the lead for long, which was also the case in Game 5. Every Time the Panthers scored tonight, the Bruins answered.

In this twelve goal game, neither team held more than a one goal lead until the last 28 seconds of the game. 

The Bruins once again were dangerous on their power play, scoring on three of their four attempts. 

Entering the third period, the Panthers had a 3-2 lead due to their captain Aleksander’s Barkov’s first goal of the series. 

With the Panthers leading and 20 minutes to go, one of the hottest Bruins on the ice Tyler Bertuzzi quickly scored his second goal of the night  1:31 into the third, tying the game at three. 

Minutes later the Bruins took their first lead of the game off of David Pastrnak’s second goal of the game – Boston’s third on the power play.

Trailing for the first time in Game 6, the Panthers didn’t waver. They were pulled back into it by Zac Dalpe, who spent a large portion of the season in AHL Charlotte as their captain.

“That’s just a great story, Zac Dalpe,” said Panthers head coach Paul Maurice. “That’s the right guy to come up and pull us out of the fire.”

After Dalpe’s tying goal, the Bruins kept pushing. Now 4-4 and the Panthers on the power play, the momentum was swinging Florida’s way.

Boston’s first lead came on the power play. They grabbed the lead again, but this time they were short handed. Jake DeBrusk jumped into the play and Pavel Zacha slipped a pass between two Panthers players – DeBrusk gave Boston the 5-4 lead.

Needing to get the tie back, Florida still had some power play time after giving up the short handed goal. The one to get them back even was none other than their star Matthew Tkachuk. 

27 seconds after DeBrusk’s go-ahead goal, Tkachuk relentlessly whacked at the puck in front of goal until it made its way past Ullmark.

This wild third period had the building energized and the roof nearly fell off  minutes later when the Panthers regained the lead from Eetu Luostarinen’s second goal of the series. 

“I couldn’t really hear what was going on in my head for the last 20 minutes,” Barkov said about the noise in the building. “It was insane, it was awesome.”

With the Bruins down one, they gave it one final push to try and tie up the game. A few big blocks by the Panthers eventually led to Sam Reinhart sending this series to seven with his 7-5 empty net goal. 

Florida trailed the series 3-1 last time they left for Boston – they will return to Massachusetts tomorrow riding a two-game winning streak in a 3-3 series. 

The two sides will face off for the final time this season on Sunday in Game 7. Winner goes onto the second round, the loser packs their bags and heads home for the year.