The Boston Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs, falling to the Florida Panthers, 2-1, in Game 6 of the second round, at the TD Garden on Friday night.

Gustav Forsling scored a late third-period goal, sneaking one past Jeremy Swayman, to seal his team’s fate and advance the Panthers to the Eastern Conference Finals.

“I thought we started the game off great and it got away from us in the second,” Jim Montgomery said.

With Brad Marchand back in the lineup, the Bruins came out strong, attacking the net and testing Sergei Bobrovsky early on. The B’s broke through in the first period’s final minute, on Pavel Zacha’s first postseason goal of his career as he skated in the offensive zone down the center lane and lifted a backhander under the crossbar.

But the Panthers pushed in the second and the Bruins had a hard time pushing back. They couldn’t get anything going through the neutral zone. As the Panthers pressed, the Bruins started to spend more time defending, but again, not able to win board battles.

Anton Lundell tied the game for Florida as the Bruins tried to clear their d zone and he picked up the loose puck in the slot.

Although the shot clock had Bruins edging out the Panthers 9-8 in shots during the third period, the momentum leaned toward Florida. Swayman has been excellent all postseason, but a fluke type of shot, as Forsling snuck the puck short side past Swayman’s stick and the post with 93 seconds left in the third. The Bruins had some chances as time ticked down, but Forsling’s goal became the eventual game-winner to punch their ticket to the next round.

“From where we started, expectations to start the season, everbody wrote us out and said we wouldn’t be a playoff team,” Marchand said. “We were one of the best teams.”

“From where we started to where we finished, I couldn’t be more proud of the guys.”

Here are the highlights:

First period:

The Bruins opened the scoring at 19:07 of the first period.

Jake DeBrusk sent a forwarding pass to Pavel Zacha where he picked it up at the blue line and came down the center lane and lifted a backhanded shot past Sergei Bobrovsky’s glove shoulder and under the crossbar. 1-0 Bruins.

That's pretty, Pav 👌 pic.twitter.com/78dtjiySat

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) May 17, 2024

Second period:

The Panthers tied the game at 14:44 of the second period.

After the Bruins couldn’t clear the puck from the front of the net, the loose puck found Anton Lundell in the slot where he put a quick shot past Jeremy Swayman’s glove. 1-1 game.

LUNDY FINDS IT!!!! pic.twitter.com/Oos697ualo

— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) May 18, 2024

Third period:

The Panthers scored with 18:27 of the third period.

Lundell fired a long wrist shot at Swayman who made the initial save. Gustav Forsling picked up the loose puck inside the left-wing circle where he quickly threw a shot on net that snuck past Swayman and the post. Final score; 2-1 Panthers.

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?! pic.twitter.com/LzJSewdUyS

— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) May 18, 2024