Jeremy Swayman didn’t have any doubt that he and his Bruins teammates were going to extend the series back to Boston for Game 6 after a bummer of a loss on home ice just 48 hours ago.
“We’re going to go to Florida and we’re going to play the same game and we’re going to get it done,” said a fully confident Swayman, right after the Game 4 loss with his mind already moving on to the next one. “I have no doubt in this group. We have a lot of confidence and a lot of motivation to bring it back to Boston.”
It wasn’t exactly a bold Joe Namath guarantee of victory, but it was a complete vote of confidence that his Bruins teammates were going to bring their series best in Game 5 with their backs against the proverbial wall.
That’s exactly what the Bruins did in simple, hardnosed fashion on Tuesday night in Florida when they parlayed a strong opening period, a desperate playoff effort, a little good luck and stellar goaltending into a winning hockey playoff cocktail against the Panthers to stave off elimination. Instead, the Bruins held on for a 2-1 win over the Panthers while enjoying the most offensive zone time in any game during the series and completely opening things with a first period where they outshot the Panthers by a 12-4 margin.
It was the best, most dominant 20-minute stretch for the Bruins in this entire playoff series and it culminated with a Morgan Geekie goal that gave them a 1-0 lead headed into the first intermission. Charlie McAvoy had three shots on net in that first period after not having any in the first four games of this series, and it was an intentionally wide McAvoy shot at the net that set up the Geekie score.
“I think we made really good decisions with the puck tonight in the first period, which led to the period where we’ve had the most offensive zone time, which led to quality offensive chances,” said Jim Montgomery. “We didn’t just have pucks to the net, we had rapid fire, like one shot and get a rebound because we were beating people off the net. Tonight was our best game of the series.”
The Panthers and Bruins traded goals in a second period that included the McAvoy game-winner, which was upheld after the Florida bench gamely tried to challenge the score for goalie interference on Danton Heinen. After that, it was all Swayman, all the time as he made a clean 10 saves in the third period and overall stopped 24-of-25 pucks in the final 40 minutes after the Panthers finally found their legs following a sleepy first period.
Swayman was at his best in the third period when Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe had multiple scoring chances, including Reinhart with a wide-open scoring bid in the closing seconds as the Panthers scrambled with the goalie pulled. Swayman stoned that scoring bid just as he did with a Brandon Montour shot in traffic that the Florida defenseman zipped at the net for a trick shot with his back turned through his legs.
Jeremy Swayman comes up with a huge save in the dying seconds of regulation as the @NHLBruins force a Game 6! 🤯 #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/XtAMHFdyXv
— NHL (@NHL) May 15, 2024
One was a little trickier than the other, but both were potentially damaging scoring chances against the Bruins that were rendered harmless by a Boston goaltender still at the very height of his game.
“I’m so grateful for these opportunities and how the games present themselves,” said Swayman after the Game 5 victory. “I just embrace it with a smile and I’m so proud of the guys in front of me with they battled, played the systems so well and communicated everything. And it showed tonight. We had an edge, and we weren’t taking ‘no’ for an answer.
“I can’t thank my mentors enough for replacing that word ‘nervous’ with ‘excited’ and for just [letting me be me] and embracing these moments. And that’s where I find the most enjoyment truly living it to my absolute fullest. I couldn’t be happier.”
Interestingly enough, it feels like the rest of his Bruins teammates are feeding off the confidence that Swayman is displaying every time he plays, every time he speaks and what he’s done while building up an incredible playoff body of work. Quite honestly, the only chance the Bruins have in this series is if Swayman continues to play at the highest level of play he’s been at throughout the postseason, but that kind of goaltending gives Boston a chance against a Florida team that appears to be bigger, faster, better, deeper and more dangerous at pretty much every other turn on the roster.
“It’s because of the quality of people in our dressing room. It starts with our captain, we have two assistants, and we have the subgroup beneath them. And we have a goaltender that’s extremely confident,” said Montgomery. “His swagger gives confidence. People read his quotes and they believe it.”
Swayman put a little more succinctly in his swaggering way while keeping it about the team effort in front of him that included 20 blocked shots that were almost double what Florida was doing at the other end of the ice.
"I would run through a wall for these guys,” said Swayman. “I'd do anything for these guys to make a save. That's all I'm caring about out there. It's really special to get wins like that."
It remains to be seen if this was a last-gasp kind of effort from the Black and Gold in this postseason, or if this is some kind of formula, they can utilize moving forward in the final few games of this playoff series.
But there’s little doubt they’ve got a Dumb and Dumber-style chance with the ultra-confident goaltending that Swayman is giving them, and with nobody less than Seabass involved with these second-round proceedings.
Favorite Diner movie scene?
— Shooter McGavin (@ShooterMcGavin_) October 16, 2023
I’ll start:
pic.twitter.com/ZZaZSw7xvz
Yes, we are saying that the Boston Bruins have a chance and Swayman is a key figure in all of that while he’s been the hot goaltender pretty much throughout this postseason.