FORT LAUDERDALE – The Florida Panthers don’t mind making a trip to TD Garden.
Leading 3-2 in the Second Round of the Eastern Conference, they will look to continue their road success in the series when they try to eliminate the Boston Bruins in Game 6 on Friday.
Since last season, the Panthers have won five consecutive playoff games in Boston.
During that streak, they also led 23-13 in goals.
“I think in general just on the road with this group of guys, you spend more time together and talking about hockey,” said captain Aleksander Barkov, “That kind of team chemistry. It’s there. I think it It fits our game system that we want to play really hard and simple on the road, especially.”
After overcoming a 3-1 series deficit to knock off the 65-win Bruins during a historic first-round upset last season, the Panthers flipped the script during this year’s comeback, building a 3-1 series lead for yourself before you lose. Game 5 at Sunrise on Tuesday.
Heading back to Boston for Game 6, they are confident they can close things out.
“I think we like that underdog mentality,” defenseman Gustav Forsling said. “We played unreal on the road.”
In their last two games at TD Garden, the Panthers have certainly played at home.
After scoring four power-play goals during a 6-2 rout of the Bruins in Game 3 on Friday, they overcame an early 2-0 deficit to squeeze out just a 3-2 win in Game 4 on Sunday.
Running the offense in those two wins, eight different Panthers scored a goal.
“It’s huge,” Barkov said of the team’s depth. “All season we’ve had great depth in our team. We’re a really deep, deep team. It helps a lot. It doesn’t matter who scores the goals, all we want to think about is playing our game and playing our style”.
In addition to the depth, it was defended to perform on the road.
Over the course of their wins in Games 3 and 4, the Panthers gave up just two goals at 5-on-5 while leading 98-61 in shot attempts and 41-25 in scoring chances. Despite only 31 shots during face-off games, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped nine of 10 high-danger shots.
“We want the forecheck to go, turn pucks over and get to the net,” Forsling said.
Looking at the bigger picture, coach Paul Maurice believes the reason the Panthers have found success on the road is because they don’t change their game.
Their identical 26 home and road wins during the regular season backs up that claim.
“Our home numbers are very good,” Maurice said. “The unusual part is that our road numbers are as good as our home numbers. There’s not a lot of difference in our game. … Either we feel good or we don’t, or we’re in home or we’re not, most nights we compete really hard. That gives you a chance to win at home and on the road.”
With a chance to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight season, the Panthers will look to maintain that level of competition against the Bruins in Game 6.
As for TD Garden fans, the Panthers are in for a not-so-warm reception.
“It’s a great atmosphere here,” Barkov said. “They love their sports.”
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