The Bruins on Wednesday night beat the Panthers in nearly all areas.
Except for where it counted: the scoreboard.
Florida somehow escaped TD Garden with a 4-3 overtime victory despite Boston controlling the tempo and totaling far more scoring chances in Game 5. And now, the Panthers have an opportunity to force a winner-take-all Game 7 when the series shifts to FLA Live Arena for Game 6 on Friday night.
Each team conceivably could look at its respective glass as half full or half empty. The Bruins can take solace in dominating most of Game 5 and still holding a 3-2 series lead, yet turnovers continued to prove costly as Boston consistently played from behind Wednesday. The Panthers, meanwhile, should be thrilled about extending the series, especially as heavy underdogs, but a similar effort almost certainly won’t do the trick in Game 6.
The Bruins attempted 91 shots in Game 5, with 47 reaching the net, whereas the Panthers totaled 47 shots that resulted in 25 making it to the cage. Sergei Bobrovsky deserves a ton of credit for Florida staving off elimination. The goaltender rewarded head coach Paul Maurice for sticking with him after starting Alex Lyon between the pipes for the first three games of the series.
But can the Panthers continue to live like this, with the Bruins outshooting them by such a wide margin?
“That’s a legitimate question,” Maurice told reporters in Boston after Game 5. “I would contrast it with we’re down 3-1. After two periods of Game 2, up until it got 3-1, we’d given up eight even-strength shots. So, I don’t know the answer to that question.
“The people from Florida can tell you we had a whole unbelievable run in the first three months of our season. Our analytics were unbelievable. In the Boston, Carolina area of, we’re outshooting teams 2-1, and we’re struggling. I do think shots are more valuable in playoffs than they are in the regular season. It’s the chaos caused by the shot, not the shot, whether it’s dangerous or not. They had possession from the power-play goal on. They were very dominant this game. They had lots of chances, they had lots of zone time, they had lots of action. Sergei was fantastic. We invented new ways to give up chances and shots at the end of the game. The trend is, you probably can’t give up 50 shots a night. You got to win a series. This isn’t a full series anymore.”
Again, there are multiple ways for both sides to look at what’s transpired through five games. Each team has had highs, lows and everything in between. Welcome to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The reality, however, is we have ourselves a series, even if the Bruins remain in the driver’s seat by virtue of a 3-2 advantage and most of what they showed in Game 5. And the Panthers presumably will take that, as a team few anticipated keeping pace with the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners.
