Taylor Hall had a four-point night to put the Boston Bruins on the verge of advancing in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs following a 6-2 victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference First Round series at FLA Live Arena.
The Bruins, who set the NHL record for wins (65) and points (135) in a season, leads the series 3-1 and can close out Florida in Game 5 on Tuesday night in Boston.
Jake DeBrusk scored twice for the Bruins, who won the two games in Sunrise by a combined score of 10-4.
"We have to be happy with the results, but we can still be better with our game", said Boston forward Brad Marchand. "We did a great job responding to a little bit of adversity, but these games are over and done with, and they have no bearing on how the next one's gonna be played and the outcome of it."
Linus Ullmark made 41 saves for the Bruins, but was forced to leave the game with 3:11 remaining, given a misconduct penalty following an altercation with Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots, making his first start of the playoffs for Florida.
"It was good to be there, for sure", he said. "I was happy. I felt good. It was a great crowd, great atmosphere. It was a great game. It was a fun game, fun to be there, and unfortunately we didn't pull the win, but the series is still on."
Hall, DeBrusk lead Bruins to 3-1 series lead
Despite getting the first 10 shots of the game, Florida fell behind nearly halfway through the first period as Marchand stuck home a rebound between Bobrovsky's pads with Boston on the power play.
"They came up with a really good push, [Ullmark] allowed us to weather the storm and start going back at them", Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said.
"He's been doing that for us all year. It's amazing how calm I am when I see scrambles in front of his net because he's calm."
DeBrusk extended the Boston lead to 2-0 on the power-play, finishing a three-way passing sequence with Dmitry Orlov and Hall.
After being hit by a puck on the ear, DeBrusk briefly left the game to get stitches, but was soon back on the Bruins' bench.
"Dusty, one of our trainers, kind of freaked out a little bit because there was a lot of blood", DeBrusk said. "Thought it was the ear but it was a little bit higher than that. But it kind of woke me up honestly."
Tkachuk got to a loose puck near the right post, put it between his legs and potted into an open net to make it 2-1.
In a dominant third period the Bruins scored four times, Tyler Bertuzzi getting the first of those goals as he tipped in Brandon Carlo's shot from the point.
Again it was a one-goal game as Sam Bennett netted on a rebound for the Panthers' first power-play goal in 10 chances this series.
"I loved our start", said Florida head coach Paul Maurice. " The game got away at the end by score, but not by scoring chances necessarily. We'd given up 11 even-strength shots through two periods, and the other guy made a couple of real good saves to kind of keep us from getting to be tied."
DeBrusk made it 4-2 as he scored on a rebound from Pavel Zacha's shot.
Hall then capped the scoring first on a breakaway then grabbing another goal by firing into an empty net with 29 seconds remaining for the 6-2 final.
"It was nice to see him get rewarded", DeBrusk said of Hall. "He's working hrd and going into the hard areas, and it's one of those things that we need everybody this time of year, and obviously you can see his confidence.
"Even that breakaway goal, it's one of those things where it's a little thing, but it kinda put the nail in the coffin."
This is the third time Florida has faced a 3-1 series deficit and they failed to come back the previous two times.
"We're just gonna keep going", said captain Aleksander Barkov said. "We had a good start. We want to have the same start and try and play the whole game. That's our identity and that's how we need to play."