Florida Panthers’ lead turns precarious with home loss as series returns to Boston for Game 6 | Opinion

Last season to this series, the Florida Panthers have won their last five playoff games in a row played in Boston. They’ll make it six now -- or there will be a Game 7.

File Tuesday night under Nothing Comes Easy.

What might have seen Cats fans celebrating a playoff advance saw the lead turn precarious as the series heads back north.

The Cats were home and up 3-1 with a chance to end the Bruins season and clinch a spot in the NHL Eastern Conference finals.

Now, after Tuesday night’s 2-1 Game 5 home loss, instead of resting and awaiting the New York Rangers-Carolina winner, Florida takes a now-precarious 3-2 series lead back up to Boston for Game 6 on Friday, with a Game 7 if necessary back in South Florida on Sunday.

“[Boston] brought a little more battle than we did,” said the Panthers’ Kevin Stenlund. “We came out a little bit slow.”

“They came out quicker than we did,” said Carter Verhaeghe. “We’re going to recover and we’re going to come back.”

Captain Aleksander Barkov was blunt: “We got to play harder. We were sitting back watching what was happening. We have to play a lot better than that.”

As they had in the previous game, the Bruins skated to an early lead when Morgan Geekie’s goal just 4:49 into the game made it 1-0. Boston dominated possession early and led in first-period shots, 13-4.

Florida got level at 1-1 6:23 into the second period when Sam Reinhart’s wrist shot flat-out beat Jeremy Swayman.

“Incredible hand skills in traffic,” said coach Paul Maurice of Reinhart. “He did some freakishly good things out there.”

The score came just seconds back from a TV timeout. So what were Maurice’s words of wisdom to his team during the break?

“They needed some profanity in their life,” he said. “I brought some.”

But Boston took only four minutes to regain the lead at 2-1 when Charlie McAvoy’s wrister got through Sergei Bobrovsky, who otherwise played masterfully. Florida challenged, alleging goalie interference led to the score. The striped shirts properly (based on replays) did not concur.

Maurice thought “there was enough bump to keep Bob from setting.”

That score stood, as four power-play chances including a pair in the third period all proved fruitless for Florida.

“Maybe not look for the perfect play as much,” said Verhaeghe.

Neither did an extra man from pulling Bobrovsky with three minutes left in regulation rescue the Cats.

Maurice hated his team’s play in the first period, liked it a lot better from there, but said, “I never felt we got to the way we [like to] look.”

A 4-1 first-round waltz past Tampa Bay gave the Cats a chance Tuesday for the same gentleman’s sweep vs. Boston to get halfway to lifting the NHL’s Stanley Cup.

Not so fast.

I thought going into this Game 5 that these Panthers had the look and feel of a team able to crown its 30th franchise season with its first championship.

I still believe it, although Tuesday night reframed the narrative a bit for now as every result in a best-of-7 does.

Florida has been really good for three seasons now, reaching the Final last summer. But this iteration is clearly better, the best Florida has ever put on ice, led by the arrival of general manager Bill Zito, the hiring of coach Paul Maurice and the trade for Matthew Tkachuk.

The Eastern Conference finals opponent is yet to be known. The favored New York Rangers lead Carolina 3-2 entering Game 6 Thursday night, with a Game 7 Saturday if needed. A Tuesday elimination-game win would have assured the Cats a rest advantage over their next opponent. Now, added rest is secondary to securing that fourth series win denied them Tuesday.

I still like the Cats to win the series.

“We’re deeper this year,. We have the game spread out across four lines,” said Maurice of the improvement from last season. “We’ve been an exceptionally disciplined team on the ice -- different than last year’s group. Almost 180 [degrees different]. These guys are a more serious group, more focused.”

Despite Tuesday’s loss, Florida has proved to be a deeper, more talented team in this series.

Bruins captain Brad Marchand was ruled out a second straight game after taking a hard hit from Sam Bennett in Game 3 -- a collision Boston called a cheap shot, but the officials did not agree. (Marchand makes a comically lousy sympathetic victim, by the way. Nicknamed “Rat” with cause, he has been suspended eight times in his long NHL career for a total of 28 games.)

Boston in general has spent a lot of time complaining in this series and not enough time being a good hockey team.

Knowing they were inferior in talent and depth, the Bruins have tried to muscle Florida. As a strategy, it has mostly failed. Witness Matthew Tkachuk’s right-fist bull’s-eye to David Pastrnak’s face in Game 3.

The Bruins’ one legit complaint this series was that Bennett’s tying goal in Game 4 ought to have been disallowed for interference in the crease. Then again, it is typically the desperation of the inferior to seek a bailout from the benevolence of officiating.

The Panthers are not done proving their superiority, though, as they face a Game 6 on the road to try to avoid a winner-take-all Game 7 back in Sunrise.

Florida overcame a 3-1 series deficit to Boston to advance in last year’s playoffs.

Now the Panthers must stop the Bruins from fashioning that same miracle on ice.