Jakub Lauko corrected the Boston hockey players’ 2:6 loss against Florida with his first goal in the NHL playoffs. His teammate David Pastrňák assisted on the remaining goal for the Bruins, who are trailing 1-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last year’s NHL finalist used four power plays. Edmonton won on the ice of Vancouver 4:3 in overtime and tied the series at 1:1.
Boston won the first game of the series 5:1, but lost the next one 1:6 and 2:6. In Friday’s duel, Evan Rodrigues opened the scoring from a stop 16 seconds after Pavel Zacha’s return from the penalty bench.
Florida jumped to 4-0 between the 37th and 44th minutes. The visitors took full advantage of the foul with a high stick, for which Mason Lohrei received 2+2 penalty minutes. Vladimir Tarasenko broke through from the left circle and finished a quick combination from the area in front of Carter Verhaeghe’s goal.
At the beginning of the third period, the team weakened Lauko for illegal defending by the goalkeeper. Boston protested in vain that the Czech player was pressed against the goalkeeper by Aaron Ekblad. Lauko on the penalty bench angrily throws a bottle of drink against the guardrail, the fans pour ice on it.
In addition, the Bruins paid dearly for the exclusion: Brandon Montour increased the shot from the blue line.
In less than two minutes, Lauko experienced the opposite feelings. The Czech forward celebrated his goal for the first time in the playoffs. When the advantage was signaled, he got the puck into the left circle, from which he scored with a shot over the defender under the top post.
At 48:31, Pastrňák started the turnover with a penetration pass, which was finished by Jake DeBrusk.
But Sam Reinhart calmed down Florida when Boston played without a goalkeeper. Rodrigues sealed the win with an unassisted shot from the left circle for the team’s fourth power play out of six in the game.
“Florida played well, we didn’t,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery summed up the game, in which his players lost on shots 17-33. In addition, from the last third, the team was missing leader Brad Marchand, who resigned due to injury.
“We still fought for him. I think that (David Pastrňák and Charlie McAvoy) did a good job to replace him on the substitution. All our players (in the third period) worked as Brad Marchand would imagine,” he added.
The guests praised that the power-play formations came through at the right time. “It’s easy to say now that it was just a matter of time, but I was optimistic about our power plays. They were better than the stats showed. And when you do the right things all around, you’re going to have a good night. That’s what happened.” said the winners’ coach, Paul Maurice.
McDavid and Draisaitl were on a rampage
Vancouver took a three-goal lead in regular time on goals from Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Nikita Zadorov. Edmonton always responded within seven minutes. Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm and Connor McDavid took care of the equalizer. The match was decided at 65:38 by Evan Bouchard, whose sharp pass from the right guard was knocked into his own net by Ian Cole.
“They were the better team,” acknowledged Vancouver forward JT Miller, who with his teammates from the formation did not defend the opponent’s most striking line. Draisaitl and McDavid were on all four goals with the same balance of 1+3.
“They beat us. We had chances to win. But they spent a lot of time in our zone and it was difficult to defend. We didn’t win the fights at the goal posts, which doesn’t happen to us normally, we have to improve on that,” he added.
At the same time, Vancouver wiped out McDavid in the last game, who for the first time in his career did not shoot on goal in a playoff game. The more active Canucks flashed with a turnaround from 1:4 to the final 5:4. But in the second game, McDavid fired five times and Edmonton outshot the home team 18:4 from the third period on. He crowned the advantage with the winning goal.
“I was happy with the performance in the first and second periods, but the third was our best,” said Edmonton coach Khris Knoblauch. “We pushed them. I simplified the game and they showed much more commitment than in the first game,” the coach was pleased.
2. kolo play off NHL:
Eastern Conference – Game 3:
Boston – Florida 2:6 (0:1, 0:2, 2:3)
Goals: 46. Lauko, 49. DeBrusk (Pasternák) – 9. and 60. Rodrigues, 37. Tarasenko, 38. Verhaeghe, 44. Montour, 59. Reinhart. Shots on goal: 17:33. Spectators: 17,850. Stars of the match: 1. Barkov, 2. Rodrigues (both Florida), 3. DeBrusk (Boston). Series status: 1:2.
Western Conference – Game 2:
Vancouver – Edmonton 3:4 in overtime. (1:1, 2:1, 0:1 – 0:1)
Goals: 5. E. Pettersson, 21. Boeser, 39. Zadorov – 11. Draisaitl, 22. Ekholm, 46. McDavid, 66. Bouchard. Shots on goal: 19:31. Spectators: 18,985. Stars of the match: 1. McDavid, 2. Draisaitl (both Edmonton), 3. Zadorov (Vancouver). Series status: 1:1.
