Controversy was the best way to describe game four of the second round series between the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers on Sunday. With the Boston Bruins leading the Florida Panthers 2-1 early in the third period, there was a debatable goal scored as the Panthers tied the game at two. Florida went on to win the game 3-2 and have now taken a three games to one series lead in the best out of seven series.
What was the controversy?
At 3:41 of the third period, Panthers center Sam Bennett of Holland Landing, Ontario scored his second goal of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs on the power-play from Anton Lundell of Espoo, Finland and Evan Rodrigues of Toronto, Ontario. One reason why Bennett was so wide open in front of the net is because moments before he scored, he cross-checked Bruins forward Charlie Coyle into Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman. Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery believed the cross-check prevented Swayman from reaching over to make the save. The goal was considered good on the ice, because of the viewpoint of the officials that Bennett’s cross-check of Coyle into Swayman did not lead to goaltender interference.
The Panthers were given another power-play as a result of the unsuccessful Bruins challenge. The Panthers did not score on the subsequent penalty. However, they did score less than two minutes later as Aleksander Barkov of Tampere, Finland notched the game-winning power-play goal from Kyle Okposo of St. Paul, Minnesota and Vladimir Tarasenko of Yaroslavl, Russia at 7:31 of the final frame.
Bennett public enemy no. 1 in Boston
There is no doubt that the Bruins fans cannot stand Bennett at the moment. Another reason is because in game three, a 6-2 Florida win, Bennett punched Bruins captain Brad Marchand during a body-check, and as a result Marchand suffered an upper-body injury. Marchand did not play came four.
Panthers one win away
The Panthers are one win away from eliminating the Bruins from the playoffs the second straight year. Florida is also one away from reaching their second straight Eastern Conference Final.
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