BOSTON (AP) — Aleksander Barkov slipped through three Bruins defenders to score the go-ahead goal on Sunday night, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 16 shots to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 victory over Boston and a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
One year after Florida knocked out the record-setting Bruins in the first round on its way to the Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers won their third straight to send Boston to the brink of elimination.
Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell also scored for the Panthers, who scored three times in a row to rally from a two-goal deficit. Florida can advance to the Eastern Conference finals with a victory in Game 5 at home on Tuesday night.
Playing without captain and leading scorer in the postseason Brad Marchand, Boston jumped to a 2-0 lead with goals from David Pastrnak and Brandon Carlo. Jeremy Swayman made 38 saves for the Bruins.
One game after his hit — or, as the Bruins believe, his sucker punch — knocked Marchand out of Game 4, Bennett scored a disputed goal to tie the game 2-all about four minutes into the third period. After Swayman made a save on Lundell, Bennett gave Boston’s Charlie Coyle a shove, sending him into the goaltender, and then flipped the puck into the net.
The Bruins challenged, claiming goaltender interference, but the replay confirmed the goal. The NHL is alone among the major North American sports in refusing to make referees available to reporters to explain controversial calls.
Boston, which lost three of its last four games in the regular season to fall one point below Florida in the Atlantic Division, now must win three straight — with two on the road — to remain alive in the playoffs.
