BOSTON — Bruins coach Jim Montgomery played it very close to the vest as to who would be in Boston’s net for Game 7 on Sunday night against the Florida Panthers.
But Montgomery ultimately decided to make a goalie chance, replacing Linus Ullmark, who started in the first six game of the series, for Jeremy Swayman with the Bruins’ season on the line.
The 24-year-old Swayman led the Bruins onto the ice for pregame warmups, revealing the goalie change that was sure a difficult decision for Montgomery.
“If we make a change at any position, it’s really hard because we have a group that has given everything to the team all year and everybody wants to play in a Game 7,” Montgomery told reporters after morning skate, per team-provided video.
Swayman hasn’t started a game in over two weeks when he manned the net in Boston’s regular-season finale, but he did see time late in the third period in Game 4 of the series when Linus Ullmark got a misconduct for challenging Panthers star forward Matthew Tkachuk. Swayman was tasked with only making one save in that apperance.
In his postseason career, Swayman owns a 3-3 mark to go along with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage.
