Linus Ullmark may be the runaway favorite to win the Vezina Trophy for the 2022-23 NHL season, but he endured a tough night in the Bruins' 4-3 Game 5 loss to the Panthers on Wednesday.
His final act of the night was arguably his worst of the entire season thus far.
The Bruins and Panthers were tied 3-3 in overtime when an errant pass skittered into the Bruins' zone. Ullmark went to play the puck behind the net while Boston defenseman Matt Grzelcyk raced back against Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe in an effort to get to the puck.
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Ullmark got to the puck first behind the net before Grzelcyk skated up right next to him. The netminder then inexplicably threw the pass right to Verhaeghe.
The Panthers forward intercepted it and threw it in front of the net. Ullmark slid in front of the goal to deflect it, but it ultimately went to Matthew Tkachuk, who easily scored on the wide-open net.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!? 🤫
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 27, 2023
Matthew Tkachuk keeps the @FlaPanthers season alive thanks to his @SUBWAYCanada OT winner! pic.twitter.com/3eR30WDLqV
So, what happened during the play? Ullmark explained after the contest that he was trying to bypass Verhaeghe by throwing the puck past him in the corner. He simply mishit the pass.
After the whiff, it became a mad scramble for him to get back to the net, as he explained to NESN.
You try to get back to the net, and [Verhaeghe] sends it in. I tried to not put myself in a position where he could bank it off me. Unfortunately, it hits my skate and then ends up in the wrong hands. And from there, it was kind of a situation where I couldn't get back into position, and he takes it wide and puts it in.
Ullmark didn't seem overly upset with his miscue. Nonetheless, it sealed a Panthers win that cut Boston's series lead to 3-2. Now, the two teams will head back to Florida, where the Panthers will look to upset the Bruins again to force a winner-take-all Game 7.
"This is what we play for, you know? Some you win, some you lose."
— NESN (@NESN) April 27, 2023
Linus Ullmark took questions from the media following the Bruins 4-3 OT loss to the Panthers in Game 5. #NHLBruins | https://t.co/1riFRo7BIX pic.twitter.com/kfltj8QH1B
Certainly, Ullmark will be looking to atone for his below-average Game 5 performance in the upcoming Game 6. He stopped just 21 of the 25 shots he faced from Florida during the game and was vastly outplayed by his counterpart, Sergei Bobrovsky.
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Bobrovsky stopped a whopping 44 of the 47 shots the Bruins took on Wednesday. That included a last-second breakaway chance for Brad Marchand that could have sent the Bruins through to the second round of the NHL's Eastern Conference playoffs.
Bobrovsky denies Marchand's breakaway in the final seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime#TimeToHunt | #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/PASOxLA15S
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) April 27, 2023
Even still, Ullmark isn't too worried about Game 6. He said that the Bruins will prepare for it just as they did the other games in their playoff series.
"There's gonna be adversity in a series," he explained. "It's always hard to close it out. A team's gonna play for their lives and for their seasons, so we gotta be better for the next one."
How can the Bruins do that?
"Start on time," Ullmark said. "Including me; I'm guilty of that as well. But it's a new day tomorrow."
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The Bruins have plenty of experience in doing that after a loss. They have only endured multi-game losing streaks twice during the 2022-23 NHL season and haven't dropped back-to-back contests since losing to the Red Wings and Blackhawks on March 12 and 14.
So, the odds remain in Boston's favor as it looks to close out the series on Friday.