SWAYMAN DELIVERS AS BRUINS TOP PANTHERS TO FORCE GAME 6
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Jeremy Swayman said the series would return to Boston. And he backed up that claim in a big way.
Swayman made 28 saves, Charlie McAvoy added to the list of disputed goals in this matchup with the go-ahead score and the Bruins staved off elimination by beating the Florida Panthers 2-1 in Game 5 of their NHL playoff series on Tuesday night.
The biggest stop of Swayman’s night might have been his last: He stoned Florida’s Sam Reinhart from close range with about 8 seconds left, and the Bruins — just as he vowed — left Florida winners.
“We have a goaltender that’s extremely confident,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “His swagger gives confidence.”
Morgan Geekie also scored for the Bruins, who improved to 2-0 in elimination games this season — they also won a Game 7 over Toronto in Round 1 — and finally found a way to hold the Panthers’ offense in check.
Reinhart scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots. The Panthers had just four shots in the first, then got 25 to Swayman in the final 40 minutes.
“We had our missed opportunities,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “There’s a losing coach’s line: ‘We had our chances.’ I didn’t like our game. But I like the fact that from where we were in the first, we got into a much, much better place in the second and third.”
Florida — which saw its series lead cut to 3-2 — had 15 goals on 107 shots in Games 2, 3 and 4 combined, all of them Panthers wins. But on Tuesday, the Panthers were held to 29 shots and Swayman looked in total control the whole way.
Game 6 is in Boston on Friday. Game 7, if necessary, would be back in Florida on Sunday.
“The reality is that we’re going to go to Florida and we’re going to play the same game and we’re going to get it done,” Swayman said after Game 4. “I have no doubt in this group. And we have a lot of confidence and a lot of motivation to bring it back to Boston.”
It’s going back to Boston.
“I just can’t thank my mentors enough for showing me the way and replacing that word ‘nervous’ with ‘excited’ and just being me and embracing moments,” Swayman said after Game 5. “That’s when I find the most enjoyment, truly living it to the absolute fullest. And I couldn’t be happier.”
Bobrovsky was pulled with 3:05 left, Florida going 6-on-5 in an effort to tie the game but managed to get only three pucks to Swayman the rest of the way.
The Bruins played the second straight game without their captain and leading scorer Brad Marchand, who hasn’t been on the ice since late in the second period of Game 3 because of what Boston is calling an upper-body injury. He was hit by Florida’s Sam Bennett and wound up leaving that game, a play that the Bruins said was dirty and has only added to the intensity of the series.
Marchand was at the game, his jersey was hanging in his locker and he gave his team pep talks between periods.
“We know what he means to this group,” McAvoy said. “We didn’t say die. We wanted to see this thing go back to Boston and give him a chance to get right and hopefully be back.”
Down 1-0 in the second, Maurice gathered his team around the Florida bench during a TV timeout and used that stoppage in play to get some thoughts out — at high volume. Red-faced by the time his rant was over, Maurice was pointing animatedly and had the attention of everyone from players to assistant coaches to even the team’s equipment staff.
“I thought they needed some profanity in their life, and I brought some,” Maurice said.
Message received. Only 11 seconds after play resumed, Reinhart lifted a rebound past Swayman to tie the game at 1-1.
“It seemed to turn our game around a little bit,” Reinhart said of the Maurice rant.
But Boston had the lead again when the second period ended, after McAvoy scored a goal midway through the frame where Florida — just like the Bruins did on a big goal for the Panthers in Game 4 — claimed interference. Boston’s Danton Heinen made contact with Bobrovsky with his stick, but NHL officials in Toronto said it wasn’t enough to take the goal off the board.
“Tonight was our best game in the series,” Montgomery said.
BOUCHARD SCORES LATE WINNER, OILERS EDGE CANUCKS 3-2 TO TIE PLAYOFF SERIES AT 2 GAMES APIECE
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Evan Bouchard scored the game-winning goal with 38.1 seconds remaining and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 4 of their second-round playoff series on Tuesday night.
The victory evened the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series at 2-all, with Game 5 set for Thursday night in Vancouver.
Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring for the Oilers on a first-period power play and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added a tally late in the second period.
Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua had third-period goals for the Canucks, who lost their first road game of the postseason.
Calvin Pickard made 19 saves in his first-ever NHL playoff start, while Arturs Silovs stopped 27 of 30 shots for Vancouver.
The 32-year-old Pickard replaced Stuart Skinner, who allowed four goals on 15 shots in Edmonton’s Game 3 loss on Sunday.
“(Pickard) looked like a guy who had played 100 playoff games,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Composed, really solid, seeing the puck really well.”
In his 13th pro season, , Pickard signed with Edmonton as a free agent in July 2022. He has spent much of his tenure playing for the club’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.
He was elevated to the NHL team’s backup role in November, when the Oilers sent struggling netminder Jack Campbell down to the AHL.
Backing up hasn’t come with consistent ice time, though. Before taking over for Skinner, Pickard’s last appearance came on April 18.
Knoblauch said he’s been impressed by the goalie, even when he wasn’t playing.
“Continually, his starts have been solid, no matter how long he sat, a week, two weeks,” the coach said. “We have a lot of confidence in him and he came up big tonight.”
Staying level headed in Tuesday’s game wasn’t easy, Pickard admitted.
“I was trying to channel my emotions as much as I could,” he said. “Obviously it’s tough, it’s a high-stakes game. Obviously it’s a huge game for us. But I felt comfortable right from the get go.”
Connor McDavid sliced a blistering pass to Draisaitl and the German forward ripped a one-timer past Silovs from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. The goalie got his glove on the shot but the puck bobbled and popped into the net to put the Oilers up 1-0 at the 11:10 mark.
The tally extended Draisaitl’s point streak to all nine of Edmonton’s post-season games, with eight goals and 12 assists across the stretch. He leads the league in playoff points.
The Oilers continued to push in the second but once again found themselves stymied by Silovs.
A missed hit created a two-on-one opportunity for the Oilers with less than a minute left in the second period.
Mattias Ekholm picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and when Juulsen went to bump him off, the veteran defenseman dished off to Nugent-Hopkins. The centerman streaked up the ice and blasted a shot over Silovs’ stick to give Edmonton a 2-0 lead with 39.8 seconds left in the period.
Garland finally got a puck past Pickard 6:54 into the third when he unleashed a blast from the top of the slot, cutting Vancouver’s deficit to 2-1 with his second postseason goal.
The Canucks pulled Silovs with 2:38 to go in favor of an extra attacker and the Canucks took advantage.
Brock Boeser collected a pass from Quinn Hughes, waited a moment for his opportunity, then threw a shot toward the Edmonton net and the puck bounced in off Joshua’s skate with 1:41 left in the third.
The Oilers refused to relent and Bouchard snapped a shot in with 38.1 seconds left on the clock, pinging the puck in off Silovs’ stick for his fourth of the playoffs.
It was another solid performance for Silovs, a rookie, Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said.
Others on the team didn’t show up in the same way, he added.
“We’ve been a resilient group all year,” Tocchet said. “But we need five or six guys to get going here. I mean, it’s the Stanley Cup playoffs. Some guys, I don’t know if they thought it was the playoffs. We can’t play with 12 guys. We’ve got to figure it out quick.”
Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy sat out for a one-game suspension for cross-checking Connor McDavid after the final buzzer in Game 3. Noah Juulsen took his spot in the lineup.