Goaltender Jeremy Swayman picked up where he left off Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs and was the key figure in a 5-1 Boston Bruins victory over the Florida Panthers Monday night at Sunrise.
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven second-round series. The two clubs will cross swords again Wednesday evening at Amerant Bank Arena.
Swayman stopped 38 pucks and only conceded to Matthew Tkachuk, who broke a 0-0 tie at 11:45 of the middle period.
However, the Bruins wasted no time responding thanks to Morgan Geekie, who beat Sergei Bobrovsky just 67 seconds after Tkachuk’s goal.
The Bruins had time to add two goals before the end of the second period, those of Mason Lhorei, at 16:17, and Brandon Carlo, at 19:39.
Carlo’s goal came hours after his wife gave birth to their son.
Justin Brazeau made it 4-1 at 7:13 of the third period and Jake Debrusk added an empty-net goal at 16:38.
Lohrei added an assist and Pavel Zacha had two for the Bruins, who had 29 shots.
The series brings together the two best teams in the regular season in the Atlantic section.
The Panthers (52-24-6) accumulated 110 points, one more than the Bruins (47-20-15) even though the latter won the four games between the two clubs in the regular season.
The two teams met in the first round of the playoffs last year, and the Panthers erased a 1-3 deficit to eliminate the Bruins, who were coming off a record campaign.
With Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press