Game 3: Panthers Shut Down Bruins, Win in Boston Again

The Boston Bruins tried to get the Florida Panthers to roll around on the ice with them on Friday night.

They probably should have concentrated on trying to do something offensively, instead.

For the second straight game in this series, the Panthers played a strong defensive game and shut down the Bruins for much of a 6-2 Game 3 win.

Florida leads the best-of-7 second-round series 2-1.

The Panthers have also won their past four playoff games at the Boston Garden dating to Game 2 of last year’s opening round.

A game after holding the Bruins to 15 shots on goal in Wednesday’s 6-1 win, the Panthers held Boston to large swaths of the game without Sergei Bobrovsky having to do much of anything.

That is, until the third, after Florida held a four-goal lead. Then, Bobrovsky had to get into it.

Through the first period, Boston had three shots on goal; the total swelled to eight after 40.

Boston came correct after going down 4-0, getting a pair of goals on consecutive shots.

Bobrovsky stood tall with four saves on a penalty kill which started at 11:24 — with Dmitry Kulikov making a key block with his goalie on the ice.

He ended up with 14 saves — same as in Game 2.

Evan Rodrigues got the scoring started at 8:04 of the first, batting in a puck that popped off Brandon Carlo from a Gus Forsling point shot.

The score stayed that way until late in the second when Steven Lorentz took a high stick to the chops, likely loosening up — or losing — a couple teeth in the process.

Florida took full advantage of the 4-minute power play, scoring twice within the span of a minute.

The Panthers had been 1-for-11 with the man advantage in this series prior to scoring three straight on the power play.

First, it was Vladimir Tarasenko rifling a sharp wrist shot from the left circle that went top corner.

A minute later, Carter Verhagehe knocked a slick goal-line pass from Matthew Tkachuk past Jeremy Swayman.

In the third, the Panthers got the benefit of a sketchy goalie interference call — and cashed in on that as well with Brandon Montour slicing one from the blue line.

This one was done.

Since Boston scored first in Game 2, Florida outscored Boston 10-0 before Jakub Lauko scored on a delayed call at 5:01 of the third. It was off the Bruins’ ninth shot of the eve.

Florida came into the game feeling pretty good with the return of Sam Bennett.

He made his presence felt with authority early.

Bennett was hitting anything that moved and, when pest Brad Marchand tried to wallop him as he headed to the bench, Bennett turned and sent him to the ice.

Marchand was slow to get up, and went to the room. He did return, but did not come back to start the third period.

In the opening face-off, Marchand leaned in to captain Sasha Barkov and appeared to ask whether he wanted to fight.

Barkov had better things to do.

Game 4 is Sunday night at 6:30.