Florida Panthers Complete Biggest Comeback in Franchise History

Coming off a 6-5 shootout win in the Big Apple, the Florida Panthers were looking to make it two straight against the struggling Boston Bruins.

As expected, the Florida Panthers were hit in waves by the Boston Bruins offensively. the B’s were hemming the Cats deep in their zone, reluctant to knock off the pressure.

Thankfully, Sergei Bobrovsky was able to weather the storm, keeping the score tied at zero apiece. As the game progressed – so did the Panthers’ play – but they were unable to generate any significant offense.

With both netminders keeping the score locked and facing minimal shots, most of the play was taking place in the neutral zone, with Florida and Boston playing tight lines and denying zone entries.

Just before the period concluded, Aleksander Barkov drew a high-sticking call with 12.9 seconds remaining, sending the Panthers to their first power play of the game.

With the sound of the buzzer going off seconds later, it was scoreless after twenty minutes of play for both teams alike.

To kick-off the second, the Panthers started with 1:48 remaining on their power play from the end of the first, but the Cats couldn’t get much going and failed to capitalize on their opportunity.

As the Panthers were on their power play, though, the lights at TD Garden suddenly went off, with both teams still playing (for a few seconds ) during a short power outage.

Florida returned to the power play after Patrice Bergeron held Barkov, sending the Cats to their second man advantage. But like the first, the Panthers just couldn’t set up in the Bruins’ zone.

The Panthers came close to opening up the scoring when Evgenii Dadonov raced down the ice and beat Tuukka Rask cleanly, but unfortunately not the post.

Matt Grzelcyk hit Brian Boyle from behind when the two were skating towards the boards to battle for the puck. Surprisingly, the refs didn’t call it.

For all the chances that Florida missed, the Bruins made them pay. David Pastrnak walked into Panthers territory unmarked and wired a wrister to put the Bruins on the board first.

Not long after, the Bruins doubled their lead after Joakim Nordstrom beat Bobrovsky short-side from a tight angle. The goal was the start of the floodgates opening up.

Boston continued pouring pressure onto the Panthers, and in result, were rewarded their first power play of the night when Dryden Hunt was called for a hold.

Unlike the Panthers’ power play, however, the Bruins capitalized on their first opportunity, wasting absolutely no time. In the slot, Anders Bjork squeezed a wrister through Bobrovsky’s arm to triple the Bruins’ lead.

Things only got worse for Florida as they conceded a fourth before the second period expired. Zdeno Chara followed his original pass and stuffed a loose rebound home to give the Bruins a commanding four-goal lead.

After forty minutes of play, the Panthers had dug themselves in a hole that appeared impossible to get out of. But then, a miracle happened!

Just before the puck was dropped to start the third, head coach Joel Quenneville decided that after allowing four goals on 15 shots that it was best to pull Bobrovsky and substitute Sam Montembeault in as his reliever.

In the opening few minutes of the final frame, the Panthers bagged a couple of quick ones. The first came from Aaron Ekblad, who sniped a shot to get the Cats on the board. Then, Frank Vatrano followed up just minutes later after wiring a shot of his own to cut the Bruins’ lead in half. All of a sudden, the Panthers finally found some life!

On their fourth power play, the Panthers managed to cash in via Mike Hoffman to bring the game within a goal. They had just under six minutes to find an equalizer, which no one – including my self – would’ve thought was possible from the end of the second period onwards.

Well, to your surprise, the Panthers did it and managed to come all the way back from four goals down. With about a minute and a half remaining in regulation, Barkov drove to Rask’s cage, with a loose puck sitting in the crease after a scramble occurred. Keith Yandle pounced on the loose rebound and roofed it home to send the game to overtime.

In extra time, both teams exchanged high-danger chances, which created an exciting, back-and-forth style game. Montembeault was sharp, denying every attempt that came his way, while Rask – at the other side – did the exact same.

With the five-minute overtime expiring, a shootout was needed to decide a winner. Frank Vatrano and Chris Wagner both stepped up first for their respective sides but were denied. Vincent Trocheck shot second and blazed a shot past Rask, while Montembeault denied Brad Marchand.

Then, in the third round – with a chance to win it – Jonathan Huberdeau was denied cleanly, giving Charlie Coyle an opportunity to send it to extra shooters on a must-score attempt. Without any doubt, Coyle buried his shot and sent the shootout to a fourth round.