Bobrovsky returned to the Panthers' starting lineup in the middle of a showdown with the Bruins and, after losing his first game in goal from the opening minutes, scored five straight wins, a new franchise record. The club's former record holder was John Vanbiesbrook, who won four straight playoff wins in 1995-16 as Florida reached the Stanley Cup Final. Now the best in this indicator is Sergey Bobrovsky. First, the great Russian goalkeeper sent the vaunted “Boston” on vacation, and now he is bringing Toronto closer to him.
Bobrovsky — or simply Bob, as the fans like to call him — made a total of 69 saves after 73 shots and got the “Florida” two wins. Moreover, the second one turned out to be brighter, because it became strong-willed for the «panthers».
Already by the sixth minute of the meeting, the Panthers were burning with a score of 0: 2 after the goals of Alex Curfoot and Ryan O'Reilly, but Toronto stepped on the rake that he had previously nailed to Tampa. The Maple Leafs have not only lost their advantage, but also found themselves in a losing position, from which it will now be very difficult for them to get out. In the middle of the first period, Anton Lundel's goal brought Florida back into the game, and in the debut of the second, Russian Finn Alexander Barkov and Gustav Forsling fired a double shot and brought the Panthers forward. Further, everything was a matter of the technique of the hands and feet of the magnificent Bobrovsky.
The Russian goalkeeper has repeatedly robbed Toronto's speed forwards. But those scoring chances were abundant. On shots on target, the Maple Leafs had a huge advantage over their rival from the southern state of America, but they didn’t get any sense. Bobrovsky's two saves turned out to be especially striking: after Auston Matthews' shot from the slot area and John Tavares' substitution from a penny. «You need a great goaltender to win every game of the series. And today Bobrovsky brought it,» Florida head coach Paul said after the game. Maurice.
Sergey Bobrovsky is doing for the team what the main NHL goaltenders Andrei Vasilevsky, Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin failed in this playoff draw. He gets victories and wins series. So far, only one. But now the Panthers-Maple Leafs feud is moving to Florida, and the Southerners have a 2-0 lead ahead of two home games. Of course, nothing is absolutely decided yet, but the leaders of the «Leaves» William Nylander, Mitchell Marner and Auston Matthews for three only 3 points (0+3) after two games.
And let the goalkeeper «Toronto» Ilya Samsonov when asked by journalists about the impact of Sergei Bobrovsky's excellent performance on him, he sharply replies «I don't give a damn (an unprintable expression was used in the original)», the rest of the Maple Leafs involved hardly think otherwise.