Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2, Game 3: Florida Panthers 6 Boston Bruins 2

Will the Florida Panthers keep the momentum in their favor as their second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series against the Boston Bruins shifts to the road?

Yes. Yes they did.

Behind four power-play goals and a second consecutive game of stingy defense, the Panthers rolled to a 6-2 win over the Bruins in Game 3 on Friday at TD Garden to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 second-round series.

Evan Rodrigues scored twice. Vladimir Tarasenko, Carter Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour and Sam Reinhart all scored as well. Florida held Boston to just 16 shots on goal.

Bruins making a game out of it

Jake DeBrusk cut Florida’s lead in half, to 4-2, with 11:29 left in regulation.

The Bruins have just two shots on goal in the third period. Both have gotten past Sergei Bobrovsky.

Boston breaks up shutout

The Bruins got on the scoreboard 5:01 into the third period on a goal from Jakub Lauko during a delayed penalty.

The goal was just Boston’s ninth shot on goal through 45:01 of game action.

And add another power play goal

The Panthers pushed the lead to 4-0 on a Brandon Montour power play goal 3:09 into the third period.

The man advantage opportunity came after Boston’s Jakub Lauko was called for goaltender interference while battling with Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad on a drive to the net.

Bruins fans, frustrated with the call, began throwing assorted items onto the ice.

They had more reason to be frustrated after Montour’s slap shot from the point beat Jeremy Swayman.

Panthers get both power play goals

The Panthers capitalized perfectly on the double-minor, getting power play goals on both ends to push the lead to 3-0.

The first came with 23 seconds left on the first half of the double-minor power play, Florida pushes the lead to 2-0 on a Vladimir Tarasenko goal on a pass from Sam Bennett. It’s Tarasenko’s second goal of the playoffs.

And then Carter Verhaeghe scored exactly a minute later to complete the power-play success. Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov got the assists.

2:46 left in the period.

Panthers withstand first real threat from Bruins

It took until the late stages of the second period, but the Bruins finally managed to put together a couple minutes of sustained pressure against the Panthers.

Nothing amounted from it thanks to the Panthers’ strong defense and a few good saves from Sergei Boborovsky.

Now, Florida goes to a four-minute power play after Boston defenseman Mason Lohrei was called for a double-minor high stick on Steven Lorentz with 5:23 left in the period.

First period thoughts

The Panthers took the 1-0 lead into the first intermission and, for the most part, were the more dominant team throughout the opening 20 minutes.

Florida had a 13-3 edge in shots on goal and 26-10 advantage in overall shot attempts. The Panthers came up empty on their two power-play opportunities but did fire off four shots on goal and get five scoring chances.

Sam Bennett played six shifts in his first period back in the lineup and was one of seven Panthers to have multiple hits in the frame.

Panthers open scoring

Evan Rodrigues gave Florida its first goal of the game 8:04 into regulation when he whacked in a Gustav Forsling shot from the point past Jeremy Swayman.

It’s Rodrigues’ second goal of the playoffs and Forsling’s fifth assist of the postseason.

Sam Bennett is back

Based on warmups, Florida second-line center Sam Bennett is returning to the lineup for Game 3 after missing the past five games.

Bennett was back in his normal spot centering Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk during pregame line rushes. Nick Cousins appears to be the player coming out of the lineup for Bennett’s return.

The full forward lines:

Vladimir Tarasenko-Aleksander Barkov-Sam Reinhart

Carter Verhaeghe-Sam Bennett-Matthew Tkachuk

Eetu Luostarinen-Anton Lundell-Evan Rodrigues

Steven Lorentz-Kevin Stenlund-Kyle Okposo

Series recap and look ahead

▪ Game 1: The Bruins scored goals on each of their final three shots of the second period and never looked back to beat the Panthers 5-1 on Monday at Sunrise’s Amerant Bank Arena.

Boston goaltender Jeremy Swayman made 38 saves, including stopping all 16 Panthers shots that came his way in the third period.

▪ Game 2: Aleksander Barkov had two goals and two assists, Sam Reinhart had four assists and Brandon Montour had three points as Florida blew out Boston 6-1 on Wednesday in a game that became contentious in the third period with 12 combined game misconducts.

▪ Game 3: Tonight

▪ Game 4: Sunday, Boston’s TD Garden, 6:30 p.m., TBS, truTV and MAX

▪ Game 5: Tuesday, Sunrise’s Amerant Bank Arena, 7 p.m., ESPN

▪ Game 6 (if necessary): May 17, Boston’s TD Garden, Time and TV network TBD

▪ Game 7 (if necessary): May 19, Sunrise’s Amerant Bank Arena, Time and TV network TBD

Pregame reading

Need to catch up ahead of Game 3? Here are the highlights of the Miami Herald’s coverage over the past two days.

▪ The Panthers’ stifling, shutdown defense returned to form as Florida evened the series with the Bruins

▪ Panthers-Bruins finally got feisty. Expect that to continue

▪ Captain Aleksander Barkov and fourth-line center Steven Lorentz both find ways to spark the Panthers in Game 2.

▪ Is Sam Bennett in or out? We’ll know soon enough.

▪ From columnist Greg Cote: ‘End of world’ to new life: Panthers crush Bruins in statement win to even series