Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist as the Boston Bruins defeated the Florida Panthers 4-2 in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference First Round series at FLA Live Arena.

"It was good to get off to a nice start as an individual and as a team", Hall said. "I thought we were dialed in right from the start of the game."

David Pastrnak also scored and Dmitry Orlov and Jake DeBrusk each had two assists while Linus Ullmark made 29 saves for Boston.

The Bruins have a 2-1 series lead with Game 4 set for Sunday afternoon in Sunrise.

Captain Patrice Bergeron and forward David Krejci missed the game for the Presidents Trophy winners as Bergeron has yet to play in the series while Krejci was a late scratch with an upper-body injury.

"We saw Boston Bruins hockey today", said head coach Jim Montgomery. "Whether 'Bergy' and 'Krech' were playing, we needed everybody to start playing.

"We had some passengers (in the Game 2 defeat). Tonight, we didn't have any passengers."

Gustav Forsling and Sam Reinhart scored Florida's goals. Alex Lyon allowed three goals on 26 shots before being pulled in favor of Sergei Bobrovsky, who was seeing action for the first time since March 27th.

"It really had nothing to do with (Lyon)", said Panthers coach Paul Maurice on his decision to make the change. "He's played heavy-pressure games and a lot of them. And at 3-0, in my mind, if we mount a comeback, it's not because our goalie stands on his head. We've got to get some action going.

"And i've got another goalie -- who's a really, really good goalie -- that hasn't played in a long time. There's a risk, right? You put a guy in who's been sitting for a while, but he needs a little bit of action. That's all that was. It was not a critique of Alex's game."

Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad left the game in the second period after colliding with Boston's Charlie McAvoy. He returned for two shifts, but didn't play in the third period and his status going forward is unknown.

Bruins regain form to top Panthers, grab series edge

Hall scored 2:26 into the game as his wrist shot from above the right faceoff circle went off of Lyon's glove and in.

"I thought what set the tone was Charlie McAvoy laying a big hit in the first shift (on Eetu Luostarinen) and that was kind of a telltale sign of the night and how hard we were gonna play", Hall said.

"And the first period, whether you score or not, you want to dictate play and you want to play Bruins hockey; I thought we did that."

Charlie Coyle doubled the Bruins lead exactly six minutes into the second period as he tipped Brad Marchand's shot in from the top of the right circle.

It became 3-0 in the third period when Pastrnak beat Lyon with a wrister from the left circle after receiving a stretch pass from Orlov, and Nick Foligno made it 4-0, taking Hall's centering pass and going forehand-backhand.

 

Florida scored twice in the final 5:19, Forsling getting the Panthers on the board with a shorthanded goal, redirecting Luostarinen's pass on a 2-on-1 before Reinhart jammed in a rebound on a 6-on-5.

"They played a solid game", Reinhart acknowledged. "There wasn't much out there for us. We were able to try and salvage something late, but they played a solid game. So, you've got to learn from it and move on."