Recap: Krug’s OT winner completes the Florida sweep

Ondrej Kase gets in an inadvertent collision in the neutral zone, and heads off the ice and down the tunnel. He got called for a penalty on the play, somehow. Fortunately, he returned a few minutes later, looking no worse for the wear. No score.

After a few shoves and pokes a few minutes earlier, Nick Ritchie and Riley Stillman drop the gloves. Ritchie lands a few good shots and earns the decision. Still no score.

After controlling play for nearly the entire first period, the Bruins gave Florida some life at the start of the second. The Panthers were rewarded for that renewed effort when Mackenzie Weegar’s shot found its way past Jaroslav Halak to make it 1-0 Panthers.

Evgenii Dadanov goes into the corner and catches Brandon Carlo with an “accidentally on purpose” elbow to the face. Carlo was bleeding, and the refs called it a minor.

They then got together to call it a major, then changed their minds and put it back to a minor. The NHL! Still 1-0 Panthers.

On the ensuing minor, Patrice Bergeron tips the puck and gets the bounce and the goal to make it a 1-1 tie.

With just a goal apiece through 60 minutes, this one went to overtime! It was a chaotic affair, but ultimately, Torey Krug’s slapshot through traffic ended it. 2-1 Bruins final!

Game notes

• This was a weird one. The Bruins were largely dominant in the first period, but kind of took their collective foot off the gas in the latter half of the game. Overtime was chaos, but 3v3 is always a crapshoot. Still, they didn’t really play poorly, just not quite their best...and it was still good enough to win.
• The Czech Daves deserve a lot of credit for Torey Krug’s OT winner. David Krejci tossed a perfect pass between two Panthers to start the breakout, and then David Pastrnak won a couple of puck battles to feed the puck back to Krug.
• Nick Ritchie fought Stillman like they had some long-standing beef. Generally, guys let up once their opponent goes to the ice. Ritchie threw at least two more punches once Stillman went down, though I assume it’s hard to stop once the blood gets pumping. Still...all fights look angry, but this one looked angrier than usual.
• The main concern following the game is Brandon Carlo’s condition, as he didn’t return following that elbow to the face. A concussion would be the immediate concern, with a broken nose or dental work following right behind that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Carlo miss the weekend out of an abundance of caution.
• Nice to see Dadonov’s stick shatter on an odd-man chance in overtime. That’s what happens when you elbow people in the face, I guess.
• Ondrej Kase dodged a bullet in that collision. That one just as easily could have ended up being knee-on-knee.
• Another Bruins road game in Florida that sounded like a home game. Good job, snowbirds!