Recap: Bruins chase Panthers to lose 4-3 in overtime, dropping Game 5

The Boston Bruins chased the Florida Panthers’ lead to ultimately drop Game 5 in a 4-3 overtime loss at the TD Garden.

“We need to understand the desperation they are playing with,” Brad Marchand said of Florida’s game. “We saw that from the drop of the puck tonight.”

The Bruins spent a lot of energy trying to tie the game for nearly 60 minutes, Head Coach Jim Montgomery said postgame.

Despite outshooting the Panthers 47 to 25 overall, the Bruins got off to a slow start and were dominated in the defensive zone.

The Bruins played more of their game in the second and third period, but again, never had the lead.

A couple bad turnovers beat the Bruins tonight — and none more than the one on the overtime winner.

The first-round series shifts back to Florida for Game 6 on Friday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m.

First period:

The Panthers opened the scoring at 8:26 of the first period.

With Linus Ullmark on the ice, Carter Verhaeghe sent a pass out front that Anthony Duclair picked up and put into a wide-open net. 1-0 Panthers.

Second period:

The Bruins tied the game at 2:27 of the second period on the power play.

Charlie McAvoy found Brad Marchand just inside the left-wing circle. Marchand threw a wrist shot at Sergei Bobrovsky and followed through on it to slide one past him and even the score. 1-1 game.

The Panthers took the lead at 18:52 of the second period.

Sam Bennett beat Ullmark’s glove shoulder with a wrist shot from the high slot. 2-1 Panthers.

Third period:

The Bruins tied the game at 4:33 of the third period on the power play.

Carlie McAvoy slid a pass over to Marchand at the left point. Marchand threw a wrist shot out front that Patrice Bergeron, in the bumper, redirected to get one past Bobrovsky’s glove side. 2-2 tie game.

The Panthers took the lead at 5:14 of the third period on the power play.

Matthew Tkachuk found Sam Reinhart in the slot where he threw a quick shot to beat Ullmark’s glove. 3-2 Panthers.

The Bruins tied the game at 9:16 of the third period.

Taylor Hall found the loose puck from Brandon Carlo’s shot and got the puck to the high slot to twirl around a throw a shot past Bobrovsky’s blocker shoulder. 3-3 tie game.

Overtime:

Tkachuk ended it at 6:05 of overtime for a final score: 4-3 Panthers.

Game notes:

• The Bruins got off to a slow start tonight, but eventually started to find a rhythm as the game went on despite the loss. Montgomery talked about how there wasn’t much from his team. At the beginning — and throughout the game — Montgomery shuffled up the lines substantially and that played into some inconsistencies getting into a groove.
• David Pastrnak seemed invisible tonight. He went to pass more than shoot and when he did wind up on one-timers, they were blocked. The Bruins in general had a pass first mentality and needed to take the shot instead of looking for the perfect setup.
• Jakub Lauko had two penalties tonight, leading to Panthers’ goal. You have to wonder if he’ll be sitting on Friday.
• The Bruins power play for the most part did what it needed to do and capitalized on two of five chances. Bergeron scored five seconds into the second power-play goal and special teams up to that point did their job to equalize the score.
• The other three man-advantages did little, if anything, to advance the score. They couldn’t gain clean entries. The first unit spent more time trying to regroup then in the offensive zone. The last power play of the night had a couple good looks, but not enough from high danger areas.
• A silver lining was Taylor Hall and Charlie Coyle’s play. The two continue to be some of the best Bruins out there, and generated great opportunities all night.
• Bergeron made his 2023 postseason debut and netted his 50th career playoff goal. He said he felt pretty good. He added it took him a couple shifts to adjust to the pace of the game since it’s different jumping into playoffs versus the regular season.
• Montgomery, Hall, Bergeron and Hampus Lindholm all told reporters postgame that they still feel confident heading into Game 6. They said there’s a lot of confidence in this group and they need to regroup and focus now on the road game.
• Two more cracks at closing out the series. Friday is the first one.

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