With their season on the line, the Boston Bruins played the part of the more desperate team in Game 5 against the Florida Panthers.
But it wasn’t the cleanest outing by any means.
Amid another slew of head-scratching calls, the Bruins encountered another rough night establishing puck possession and looked lost on the power play. They nearly had a pair of costly self-inflicting moments, highlighted by Johnny Beecher’s near-disastrous turnover in the second period, and committed another too-many-men infraction in the third.
Without Brad Marchand for the second straight game, the Bruins persevered.
Boston received numerous high-danger chances on Sergei Bobrovsky, including multiple breakaway attempts from Pavel Zacha, Jake DeBrusk, Trent Frederic and David Pastrnak.