Bruins
“I felt that the defenseman was holding me and kind of pushing me inside.”
![Boston Bruins center Jakub Lauko (94) is called for a penalty as he crashes into Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (72) with help from defenseman Aaron Ekblad (5) during third period action in game three of the Eastern Conference NHL second round Playoff game at TD Garden.](https://bdc2020.o0bc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/s3___bgmp-arc_arc-feeds_generic-photos_to-arc_LEE010824bosfla28SPTS-663eeabd0c6c5-768x432.jpg)
Jakub Lauko could only shake his head on Friday night.
Not only did a 6-2 Bruins loss in Game 3 against the Panthers sap any enthusiasm out of his first career playoff goal, the 24-year-old winger was still looking for answers after spending a critical stretch of Friday’s game in the sin bin.
With the Bruins trailing Florida, 3-0, at the start of the third period, Lauko tried to jumpstart Boston’s listless offense with a hard drive to the net. Gathering the puck past the blue line, Lauko shielded the puck away from Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad as he skated toward Sergei Bobrovsky.
Lauko — with Ekblad draped over him — ultimately collided with Bobrovsky in the net, prompting the officials to call the Bruins forward for goaltender interference, with no infraction against Ekblad for holding onto him.
Lauko was incensed as he was ushered to the box, while fans at TD Garden hurled towels, water bottles, and cans onto the ice after it was confirmed that Ekblad was not joining him in the sin bin.
“I was trying to get to the net and just ended up in the goalie,” Lauko said of the play. “Like I don’t know — I felt that the defenseman was holding me and kind of pushing me inside. So I don’t know, what am I supposed to do to avoid it?”
To further twist the knife, Brandon Montour scored on the resulting power play — giving Florida a 4-0 lead just 3:09 into the final period of play.
The Panthers pounced on Boston’s PK throughout the night — cashing in on four of their six power-play bids.
“I mean, we gotta kill it,” Jake DeBrusk said when asked about the tough call against Lauko. “I think that’s something that you can’t focus on. You could be frustrated with the call or mad about anything honestly on the ice. You still have to do your job and try to keep the game tight at that point.
“But I think when you get enough opportunities, they’re top players — no matter what team they’re on — they’re all very good, they’ve played together now for a couple of years. They’re gonna get more looks, they’re gonna get more touches and that’s something that we need to avoid.”
The Bruins have not only labored on the power play in this series against Florida, but they’ve also struggled to even get on the man advantage.
Boston is 0-for-7 on the power play in this series, while the Panthers have been on the power play 15 times — cashing in on five of those opportunities.
“You know what, we weren’t very good for the first two periods,” Jim Montgomery said of the discrepancies in the calls so far in this series. “I can’t really say that we earned any more power plays. In the second period, I thought they were coming.
“And unfortunately, we got the high stick in a stick battle, fighting for a puck. And that really changed the game. I thought in the third period that we started to get juice because our crowd got us into it.”
Sign up for Bruins updates🏒
Get breaking news and analysis delivered to your inbox during hockey season.