Boston Bruins: What went wrong loss vs Florida Panthers
By Zachary McMahon
The Boston Bruins lost their second game in a row when they lost 4-3 to the Florida Panthers in overtime at the FLA Live Arena on Saturday night. They lost 3-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night. This was the Bruins first time that they lost two in a row this season.
Bruins center Trent Frederic suffered an lower-body injury in the first period and didn’t return in the game. Jake DeBrusk and Tomas Nosek were also out for the Bruins with injuries.
The Florida Panthers came in to the game with a three-game losing streak against the New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the LA Kings. They were 23-22-6 record (54 points) and 5th in the Atlantic division.
The Bruins lead the season series against the Panthers 2-1 before this game, with the last one on December 19th, in which the Bruins won 7-3.
Craig Smith scored the first goal of the game in the first period to give the Bruins the lead. In the 2nd period, Sam Bennett tipped into the Panthers own goal, so that Bruins got the goal and the credit went to Charlie Coyle.
Then in the 3rd period, David Pastrnak had a go-ahead goal with 48.6 seconds left in the game, and then things went south for the Black and yellow.
Boston Bruins kept choking
After Pasta’s goal in the third period, which most thought would be the game-winning goal for the Bruins. Jeremy Swayman, the Bruins starting goaltender let Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers score the game-tying goal with 1.4 seconds left.
After Barkov’s goal then the game would go into Overtime. In only 17 seconds of overtime Panthers forward Sam Reinhart scored the game-winning goal, and the Bruins didn’t even touch the puck in the period.
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After every goal that the Boston Bruins scored, the Panthers answered back. In the 2nd period, the Panthers tied the game at 1 with a goal from Brandon Montour. Next in the 3rd period, Bennett would redeem himself for Florida and tie the game at 2 after tipping into the Panthers net in the 2nd.
Boston Bruins didn’t capitalize on Power Plays
The Bruins had four power play opportunities in this game against the Panthers and didn’t score on a single one.
All the penalties for both teams were in the 1st and 2nd period. In the 1st period, Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg received two minutes in the penalty box for roughing Nick Foligno. Then, Bennett got a four-minute penalty for high sticking Patrice Bergeron. In the 2nd period, Carter Verhaeghe got two minutes for interfering Brad Marchand and Givani Smith also got two minutes for high sticking Nick Foligno.
They have been 0-6 in power play opportunities as they were also 0-2 in the loss against the Lightning on Thursday night, which may be one of the reasons for the 2-game losing streak.
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If the Bruins want to win against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight, then they need to use power play opportunities when they get them, especially if it’s an extended one like the Sam Bennett penalty.
The Boston Bruins will complete their 5-game road trip when they face the Hurricanes tonight and the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday before the NHL All-Star Break.