The Boston Bruins were under immense pressure from the Florida Panthers to begin the third period in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Monday night.
The Panthers trailed 3-1 and made a tremendous push to get back in the game. Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm took a bad penalty to put the Panthers on the power play just 1:21 into the period. The Bruins were lucky to escape that penalty kill with their two-goal lead intact as the Panthers generated three high-danger scoring chances with the man advantage.
The successful penalty kill didn't give the Bruins any momentum, though, as the Panthers continued to tilt the ice in their favor. Florida tallied 11 (!) shots on net over the first six minutes of the frame.
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Sensing his team was not sharp and needed a reset, B's head coach Jim Montgomery used his timeout to halt the Panthers' surge.
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Montgomery was seen giving his players a stern message during the break. Whatever was said clearly made an impact because the Bruins started to play much better after the timeout. Their passes were crisper, they started winning more puck battles, they exited the defensive zone more effectively, etc. Florida had a 11-1 edge in shots at that point in the third period. The Bruins outshot the Panthers 7-5 and outscored them 2-0 following the timeout.
"(Montgomery) knows the game so well," Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman said postgame when asked about the timeout, per the NESN broadcast.
"He knows when to have our bench and take a timeout. He has such a great sense of game management. I think after that timeout, you could tell the momentum was shifting. I had no doubt in my mind the guys were going to respond the right way. Seeing the way they did it, it's just a testament to the kind of group we have, how we can stay in the moment and make sure the next shift is our best shift."
Rookie forward Justin Brazeau scored his first career playoff goal two minutes after the timeout to put Boston ahead 4-1 with 12:47 remaining. This goal effectively ended the Panthers' comeback attempt as the B's cruised to a 5-1 win.
The Bruins had a lot of trouble closing out games during the regular season. In fact, they had the sixth-worst win percentage (.786) when leading after two periods.
Montgomery deserves a lot of credit for realizing his team was starting to lose its focus and taking action to address it immediately. The Panthers looked like they were ready to score one or two goals with the kind of energy they were playing with and the quality of scoring chances they were creating at that point. And if they did trim the deficit to one, the last half of the period could have unfolded a lot differently.
Many coaches either don't use their timeout at all or save it until the end of the game when one team has the goalie pulled for the extra attacker. Montgomery wisely didn't wait until it was too late, and that decision helped the Bruins finish the game strong with an impressive series-opening victory.