Bruins take series lead over Panthers with Game 3 win

The Boston Bruins traveled south to Florida for Game 3 of their first-round playoff matchup against the Florida Panthers looking to show why they were the best team in NHL regular season history.

The B’s got the scoring started early accordingly, as Taylor Hall fired a wrist shot over the glove of Alex Lyon for his second goal of the series. After each team committed and killed a penalty, the period slowed down significantly.

A second goal wasn’t scored until the second period when Charlie Coyle redirected a shot by Brad Marchand. It could have become 3-0 not long after that, but Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg showed off his speed to break up a Bruins two-man breakaway opportunity.

The Bruins controlled the play from the get-go in Game 3.

Eventually, Boston did get the lead to three, when Dmitry Orlov‘s second beautiful long-distance pass connected with David Pastrnak. On a breakaway, the 60-goal scorer notched his second goal of the series.

After the third goal, Panthers coach Paul Maurice decided to pull Lyon in favor of Sergei Bobrovsky. Lyon hasn’t been perfect in this series, but he hasn’t been the problem either. It was confusing to me that Maurice would pull him.

Bobrovsky surrendered a goal to Nick Foligno not long after entering the game, though it was not at all his fault.

Gustav Forsling added a goal for Florida late in the third period with a short-handed tally. The game had already been decided by then, but it spoiled the shutout bid for Linus Ullmark. The final score in Game 3 ended up being 4-2.

Overall, the Bruins seemed to have control of this game. With that said, there wasn’t anything overly compelling about this contest. This series has had more of a regular season feel, and Game 3 was no different. The energy felt low, but the B’s did enough to get back on track.

Surprisingly, none of the nastiness carried over from the end of Game 2. Usually in a playoff series, that type of grit transfers from game to game, but the lack of a playoff feel probably played into the lack of physicality. One scrum broke out in the third, but that was all.

In general, it did seem like the pace picked up after the third Boston goal, but that was far too late for it to mean anything. Maybe the boost in energy will carry over into Game 4 and we’ll get more of a playoff atmosphere.

Give credit to Lomberg, though, as he was one of the more active players in Game 3. Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk were not very noticeable, but Lomberg played with playoff energy from start to finish.

Game 4 between the Bruins and Panthers is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Puck drop is slated for 3:30 PM, and the game will be broadcasted on TNT.