The Boston Bruins made a statement in Game 1 of the second round against the Florida Panthers with a 5-1 win in Sunrise on Monday night.
There was a common refrain ahead of Saturday night's Game 7 between Boston and the Toronto Maple Leafs that the winner didn't matter too much with the mighty Panthers awaiting at home with plenty of rest.
Boston may have taken that personally, it appears, as the Bruins rattled off five straight goals to win the game easily after the Panthers scored first.
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Florida got the first goal of the series after a scoreless first period when Aleksandr Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk took advantage of a Boston turnover to make it 1-0 on a goal by Tkachuk.
Boston answered right back with its own opportunism after a Florida turnover, and Morgan Geekie finished off a dangerous attack by roofing the puck past a sprawled out Sergei Bobrobsky to tie the game just over a minute later.
The Bruins took full control of the game with a massive flurry to end the second period that saw defensemen Mason Lohrei and Brandon Carlo strike to make it 3-1. Carlo barely made it to the game, having just celebrated the birth of his son.
Justin Brazeau scored in the third, and Jake DeBrusk tacked on an empty netter to make it 5-1 and send most of the fans in Florida home early.
The game was everything Boston could have hoped for, as the Bruins came in on very little rest and physically imposed themselves on the Panthers, racking up 69 hits, a key factor against a physically dominant Florida team.
Many thought Linus Ullmark may get the nod in net for Boston, with Jeremy Swayman having played so many games in short succession, but Swayman took the net and was dazzling, stopping 38 of 39 shots to put his stamp on what was a total team win for the Bruins.
The Bruins still have a long way to go to pull off an upset in this series, but stealing home ice with a Game 1 win is a great first step, and the formula of physicality and dominance from Swayman could take them a long way in this tournament.
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