In Boston, the Panthers’ Evan Rodrigues scored the first and final goals of the game on Friday night in a 6-2 thrashing of the Bruins in Game 3 of their Stanley Cup Playoff second round series. 
Rodrigues’ second of the night was off the play, the fourth such strike of the evening for the Panthers.
“I’ve been more bullish on our power play than the stats, or at least the goals, would tell you I should be,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “But our analytics on expected goals for on our power play are very, very high. So, it’s easy to say now, ‘Well it’s just a matter of time,’ but if you keep doing the right things over and over, you’re [going to] have a good night.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 14 saves in the win. With their backs against the proverbial wall, the Bruins managed 16 shots on goal.
The Panthers took a 4-0 lead in the game before the Bruins found the back of the net in the third period.
Rodrigues potted his first of the night at 8:04 of the opening stanza. He scored by batting the puck in mid air for the 1-0 lead.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored the Panthers’ first power play goal at 16:14 of the middle frame. He scored off a wrister from the left circle.
“It’s nice to have two goals on the power play,” Tarasenko said. “It’s a big moment of the game, and we talk a lot about building momentum.”
Carter Verhaeghe piled on with a power play goal at 17:14, it was the same double minor as the Tarasenko strike.
“I just thought we were skating very well,” the Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk said. “Getting in on the forecheck but having good sticks, breaking up plays, being physical when needed. Forwards working back for [defensemen], [defensemen] having good gaps to help out the forwards. Just all that stuff that makes us successful.”
Brandon Montour pushed the advantage to 4-0, with the third power play marker at 3:09 of the third period, he scored off a one-timer form the from pout near the blueline.
Game 4 in the series is set for Boston on Sunday.
The Bruins finally got on the board at 5:01 of the third when Jakub Lauko trimmed the deficit to 4-1, scoring the left circle.
Jake DeBrusk made it seem like the Bruins would rally, but they ended their effort after he scored at 8:31, he scored from the left circle to finish an off man rush.
“You want to win every game and it’s one of those things that you just try to feel the frustration, to be honest with you,” DeBrusk said. “I think it’s a good thing to feel a little bit of it. Obviously, you don’t want it to let it take over your mind or think about things that are out of your control.”
Sam Reinhart iced the win when he hit an empty net at 18:36 for a 5-2 score. .
Rodrigues collected his double on the fourth power play of the game with 51 seconds left on the game clock for the 6-2 final count on the scoreboard.
“I thought our [defensemen] played phenomenal,” Rodrigues said. “Their gaps were incredible and they were heavy today. And when they’re asserting themselves like they are, it makes us a really good team and I thought from the back end out, we were really good.”
Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves in the loss.
“We’ve had a couple of games where we started slow and we haven’t generated much offense,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “We’ve got to get better. I have to give the players a better plan. Florida was significantly better than us, and I’ve got to come up with a better game plan.”
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