It was almost unfathomable that with the Boston Bruins taking a defensive zone faceoff with just under 10 seconds left in regulation that they would get a chance to win the game within that time frame.
But Bruins star Brad Marchand came narrowly close to making it happen Wednesday night in Game 5 of Boston’s opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Florida Panthers at TD Garden.
After Patrice Bergeron, who returned from injury after missing the first four games of the series, won the draw, Marchand poked the loose puck past a Florida defenseman and into open ice to put the Bruins winger in all alone of Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
With time ticking toward triple zeros, Marchand had to act fast and did, releasing his shot with a second left that Bobrovsky turned aside. It was an extremely difficult play that Marchand almost pulled off and he explained what was going through his mind during that heart-stopping sequence following a crushing 4-3 overtime loss for the Bruins.
“It was tough. I was racing against the clock,” Marchand told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “I was trying to count down. I kind of glanced up to see how much time was left and I was trying to get as close as I could with where I thought the time was. Kind of rushed the shot, but wouldn’t mind having that one back.”
Not putting home that tough-to-envision opportunity gave the Panthers an extra life, which they made the most of 6:05 into the extra frame when Matthew Tkachuk buried a chance off a turnover from Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark.
Marchand did his part early in the contest, though, crashing the net after his shot to score on the man-advantage early in the second period before assisting on Bergeron’s power-play tally in the third period.
But he might think more about the chance he didn’t cash in on in those final seconds of regulation the most as the Bruins look to regroup in Game 6 on Friday.
