Panthers Face 'Legitimate Question' Despite Game 5 Win Over Bruins
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.
Source: NESN
