The Boston Bruins simply were outplayed Wednesday night in Game 2 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Florida Panthers.
Boston rallied back from a pair of one-goal deficits in the second period, making for a tie game entering the third period, but the Panthers pulled away with four unanswered goals in the final frame to take down the Bruins 6-3 at TD Garden. The best-of-seven series now shifts to Florida for Game 3 tied 1-1.
"It wasn't our best," Bruins forward Brad Marchand told reporters, summarizing Boston's Game 2 loss. "I thought we did a good job battling back in the first two (periods). The third got away from us. It would've been nice to have a couple of plays back. They played really hard. They played very desperate. Played a really complete game. We need to be better. The good thing about playoffs is it doesn't matter what happened. Just got to move forward and get ready for the next one."
The Bruins didn't play their best hockey in Game 1, either, but managed to escape with a 3-1 victory thanks in large to terrific goaltending from Vezina Trophy favorite Linus Ullmark. Game 2 was a step in the wrong direction, though. Because even though the B's played with more energy early Wednesday night and showed plenty of fight to keep pace whenever the Panthers seemingly seized control, Boston simply made too many mistakes in its own end. And those costly turnovers resulted in Florida completely dominating the third period en route to a series-tying win.
"I think that we just have to be better at putting a complete 60 (minutes) together," Marchand said. "Even the first game that we won, we didn't play all the way through, and tonight, we didn't have the best third. We're at our best when we compete at our level for three periods. And we haven't done it yet. We need to be better. It's a good opportunity to look at some tape and see where we can improve and try and fix that for the next one."
The Bruins entered the series as heavy favorites after an historic regular season in which they set NHL records for points and wins. But the Panthers proved worthy adversaries in the first two games in Boston, which the B's can only hope serves as a wakeup call when play resumes Friday night at FLA Live Arena.
