What Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy Was Thinking During Review Of Game-Winning Goal

The Bruins needed players to step up with their season on the line, and Charlie McAvoy delivered Tuesday night.

Boston bounced back and beat the Florida Panthers, 2-1, at Amerant Bank Arena to move the best-of-seven series to 3-2 heading back to TD Garden. The gutsy win came without Brad Marchand, but another standout performance from Jeremy Swayman and McAvoy’s game-winning goal in the second period proved to be the difference.

The goal was the star defenseman’s first of the postseason, and he also recorded an assist on the first goal in the matchup. However, there was a possibility it would get overturned when Panthers head coach Paul Maurice challenged it for goaltender interference. There were flashbacks to the Game 4 challenge that didn’t go the Bruins’ way, but the officials ruled there was no goalie interference.

“This one has to go our way,” McAvoy told reporters of what he was thinking during the review, per team-provided video. “Just hoping. I thought on the play when I collected the puck, I got my head up and he seemed squared to me that he was able to square up. It was just one-on-one. It didn’t look like he was interfered with. I just kept thinking that it was a fair play. It was one-on-one, and he had a chance. Just happy that one went our way. You just never know with these things. We needed that one.”

David Pastrnak joked that McAvoy was “freaking out,” and head coach Jim Montgomery revealed he wanted his alternate captain to stay in the moment and not betray a feeling toward any direction for the rest of the team. Maurice didn’t have much to say about his unsuccessful challenge as both sides moved ahead to Game 6 at TD Garden on Friday.