When the Panthers needed it most, the power play came through in Game 3 win vs Boston

The Florida Panthers understood the importance of the opportunity in front of them. They had a one-goal lead late in the second period of Game 3 against the Boston Bruins and were about to start a four-minute power play after Boston’s Mason Lohrei was called for a double-minor high sticking penalty against Florida’s Steven Lorentz.

The Panthers’ power play had struggled mightily during to this point of the playoffs, but the team knew it was only a matter of time before it would right the ship.

They struck in that second period.

Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaghe scored power-play goals one minute apart from each other to give the Panthers some breathing room heading into the third period. Florida would score two more times on the man-advantage in the third and the defense, which was stellar all night, took care of the rest in a 6-2 win over Boston on Friday at TD Garden to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.

“Big moment of the game,” Tarasenko said. “We talk a lot about building momentum. It’s important to keep being focused.”

The four power-play goals are a single-game franchise record in the playoffs.

The Panthers held Boston to just eight shots on goal through the first two periods and 17 for the game overall — all but two of which Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped. In Game 2, Florida allowed Boston to generate just 15 shots on goal — the fewest allowed by the Panthers in a playoff game in franchise history.

And perhaps ironically, the Panthers’ capitalized power-play opportunity came after Boston had strung together its first extended stretch of offensive shifts late in the second. The Bruins didn’t get a shot on goal, but they generated pressure in the offensive zone for a couple minutes before Florida’s defense was finally able to clear the puck.

And then Lohrei’s high-stick set Florida up to stake its claim in the game — and the series.

With 23 seconds left in the first half of the four-minute man-advantage session, Tarasenko beat Boston’s Jeremy Swayman with a wrist shot from the left circle off a feed from Sam Bennett, who returned to the lineup after a five-game absence.

One minute later, Verhaeghe tipped in a shot from up close while falling to the ice to give Florida a 3-0 lead.

The 60-second span between goals was the fifth-fastest in Panthers postseason history.

“It was a huge opportunity for us,” Bennett said. “We knew it. Power-play goals in the playoffs can be hard to come by at times. We did a great job of bearing down and getting two very important goals.”

And then, for good measure, Brandon Montour added a power-play goal of his own in the opening minutes of the third period to temporarily push Florida’s lead to four goals before Boston broke up Bobrovsky’s shutout bid on a goal from Jakub Lauko 5:01 into the final frame and Jake DeBrusk cut Florida’s lead to two goals three-and-a-half minutes later.

Bobrovsky stood tall from there, stopping the final seven shots he faced — including four on a Boston power-play opportunity — to push the momentum in the final period back in Florida’s favor and seal the win.

“I didn’t mind the start of our third period — I just thought we were off by a foot,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Our sticks were a half-foot out of the passing lane. ... It was almost that way for Sergei, too. That was a tough night for him. You sit that long and then boom, two are in on two shots and you’ve got a problem. We needed that [penalty kill]. I thought that fired us back up and brought us back into the game.”

Evan Rodrigues opened scoring for Florida 8:04 into regulation, swatting in a Gustav Forsling shot from the point. Sam Reinhart added an empty-netter and Rodrigues capped scoring with Florida’s fourth power-play goal of the night with 50 seconds left on the clock.

The Panthers entered Friday having converted on just 18.2 percent of their power-play opportunities in the postseason — four power-play goals on 22 opportunities. This was despite the Panthers having their share of chances — Florida had 8.09 expected goals for on the power play through the first seven games of the playoffs, according to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick.

They finally cashed in and did so in bunches on Friday on their way to taking a series lead over Boston.

“I’ve been far more bullish on our power play than the stats — or at least the [number of] goals would tell you I should be,” Maurice said. “Our analytics on expected goals for on the power play are very, very high. It’s easy to say now ‘Oh, it’s just a matter of time, but if you keep doing the right things over and over, you’re gonna have a good night.’ I think we saved those up. We had a bunch that didn’t go for us [earlier in the playoffs]. ... Our power play’s good.”