Panthers' offense explodes, stay alive in series with Game 6 win over Bruins

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Matthew Tkachuk scored twice, Eetu Luostarinen put Florida ahead to stay with 5:38 left in what was a crazed third period, and the Panthers forced a Game 7 in their Eastern Conference first-round series by beating the Boston Bruins 7-5 on Friday night.

Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour, Zac Dalpe and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Reinhart capped it with an empty-netter with 28 seconds left — the seventh and final goal of the third period, four of those scores by Florida.

Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak each scored twice for Boston, which got four assists from Brad Marchand and 26 saves from Linus Ullmark. Jake DeBrusk also scored for the Bruins.

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Teammates congratulate Brandon Montour #62 of the Florida Panthers after he scored a first period goal against the Boston Bruins in Game Six of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the FLA Live Arena on April 28, 2023 in Sunrise, Florida. (Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

The team with the best regular-season record in NHL history took one-goal leads on two separate occasions in the third period — and couldn’t hold either one of them. Now, they face a Game 7 on Sunday just to get into the second round against a Florida team that has already staved off elimination twice.

Not even three power-play goals and one short-handed tally was enough to give Boston a win, either.

The game started along the exact sequence that Game 5 in Boston did on Wednesday night: Florida took a 1-0 lead, Boston tied it, Florida took a 2-1 lead, Boston tied it, Florida took a 3-2 lead, Boston tied it.