Two days ago, Boston was seething with anger. Not only did they lose captain Brad Marchand in the third game, but the league failed to notice that Sam Bennett deliberately hit him in the head. So Bennett himself tied the score in Game 4, after pushing the Bears defender into Jeremy Swayman. After the review, the goal was counted, Florida came back from 0-2 and achieved the third victory of the series.
Even Boston general manager Don Sweeney spoke in the press: “You shouldn’t ask the coach after the game about the officiating, but rather the umpire inspector, the series inspector or the umpires themselves. Do you want complete transparency? Then bring the judges to the microphone to answer the question. “They are the only ones who can explain exactly how they interpreted this rule.”
Finding themselves on the verge of relegation and angry with how the series was going, today the “bears” showed their teeth, playing for themselves and for Marchand, who missed the second consecutive game. Everything is as Paul Maurice predicted: “Desperation is your advantage. Irreversible despair. It clears your mind and gives you unprecedented concentration. Your job is to make their advantages disappear and become disadvantages when you start rushing and all that. Our advantage is the desire, the increase in emotions due to the fact that we have the possibility of moving to the next round. “This is huge.”
Today, Boston’s lead surpassed Florida’s lead. It’s not in vain that everyone always says that the fourth game is the most difficult to win. Well, a neutral hockey fan will like this situation even more, because the confrontation between the “bears” and the “panthers” has acquired different characteristics in principle over the past two years. These teams really don’t like each other, which guarantees intense series, a storm of emotions and excellent hockey.
From the first seconds Boston went on the attack, the advantage in shots was 7-1, when at the end of the fifth minute Morgan Geekie received a pass behind the goal, put Sergei Bobrovsky on the ice and clumsily poked the puck. to network.
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Sergei Bobrovsky was great as always and fought like a lion. Unlike the field team, which spent the first half far from the best and did not look like a team that was one step away from the conference finals.
However, Jeremy Swayman was good today, calm and gave his team a chance to win. “I’m ready to break a wall for these guys. I will do anything to get these guys saved. I don’t think about anything else. These types of victories are something special,” said the Boston goalkeeper, who was recognized as the second star of the game, after the game.
Only in the second period was Florida able to overcome Swayman. This occurred immediately after the commercial break, during which Maurice was so excited and motivated the players that they immediately went out and scored. “I won’t say exactly what I said. I wasn’t mad at them. I understood what they were going through. I just thought I should add a little bad language to your lives. “I’m not good at a lot of things, but damn, am I good at this?” Maurice explained in his emotional speech.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can watch the video on the NHL website.
However, these efforts were not enough. Swayman did not concede another goal and, shortly after tying the score, Charlie McAvoy came in and joined the attack, beating Bobrovsky. He immediately began appealing to the referees that there was goalie interference.
Video rights belong to NHL Enterprises, LP. You can watch the video on the NHL website.
“Florida” accepted the coach’s request, but the goal was counted and in the end it became the winning goal. The Panthers had plenty of opportunities to tie the score, but Swayman withstood the pressure. A year ago, the Bears lost the series with Florida, winning 3-1. They both remember well what it was like. Some want to return the favor and have taken the first step to do so. Others want to prevent such a scenario from happening again. The game will decide who will best cope with their task. There will be at least one more in this series.
