Boston showed its strength and ran over Florida. We took our foot off the gas, Tkachuk acknowledged

It is Swayman who is Boston’s best player in the playoffs so far. In seven games, he never conceded more than two goals and has a success rate of 95.5 percent. Thus, he sovereignly dominates the goalkeeping statistics of the battles for the Stanley Cup.

The 25-year-old American goalkeeper averages 1.42 goals conceded per game, which ranks him first in club history at this stage of the playoffs. “My job is to catch pucks any way I can. I’m glad I’m doing pretty well so far in the playoffs,” Swayman said.

In the first match of the conference semi-finals, his counterpart Sergej Bobrovsky also kept good numbers for a long time. The home team’s Matthew Tkachuk scored the first goal in the 32nd minute, but Florida’s lead did not last long. Boston answered after 67 seconds, when Pastrňák and Zacha took advantage of the home team’s bad play and their work was used by Morgan Geekie.

“We had a solid start and even scored the first goal. But then we took our foot off the gas and made some mistakes that shouldn’t have happened. The opponent played well, but I think we made it easy for him,” said Tkachuk, who also scored in the sixth game of the playoffs.

Both Czech forwards were on the ice for Boston’s second goal as well. But only Zach scored the assist, who moved the puck to Parker Wotherspoon on the blue line, whose pass was sent by guard Mason Lohrei for Sergej Bobrovsky. By the end of the second 20-minute period, the Bruins added one more goal. Twenty-one seconds before the siren, Brandon Carlo made it 3:1.

Before the match, it was not certain whether the 27-year-old defender would start. Carlo did not fly with the team because he was in Boston awaiting the birth of his son. In the end, the American quarterback celebrated a big life event with the second goal in this year’s playoffs. “It was all a bit hectic, but I knew I wanted to play. Now I’m glad I started,” said Carlo.

In the third act, Florida outshot Boston 16:8, but only the Bruins scored. Justin Brazeau, like Lohrei, made his first career playoff appearance and made it 5-1 with an empty-netter by Jake DeBrusk.

With an unequivocal win, Boston went for revenge for last year’s first round, in which it surprisingly lost to the Panthers 3:4 in games.

Round 2 of the NHL Playoffs:

Eastern Conference – Game 1:

Florida – Boston 1:5 (0:0, 1:3, 0:2)

Goals: 32. M. Tkachuk – 33. Geekie (Zacha, Pastrňák), 37. Lohrei (Zacha), 40. Carlo, 48. Brazeau, 57. DeBrusk. Shots on goal: 40:29. Spectators: 19,275. Stars of the match: 1. Swayman, 2. Lohrei, 3. Zacha (all Boston). Series status 0:1.