Bruins to face Panthers in the first round of Stanley Cup Playoffs

BOSTON -- The best regular-season team in NHL history now knows its first-round playoff opponent.  

That opponent will be the Florida Panthers, which became official after Florida lost to Carolina on Thursday night. That result kept the Panthers in the second wild-card spot, thus setting up their matchup with the top-seeded Bruins.

The Bruins went 2-1-1 against the Panthers this season, winning two games in Boston (by a combined score of 12-6) while losing 5-2 in one game in Florida and 4-3 in overtime in the other trip to Sunrise.

The goaltending duties for Boston were split, with Linus Ullmark going 2-0-0 with a .925 save percentage and 3.00 GAA and Jeremy Swayman going 0-1-1 with an .881 save percentage and a 4.03 GAA against Florida.

Sergei Bobrovsky started one game in net for Florida vs. Boston, allowing four goals on 33 shots in a loss. Alex Lyon was 1-0-0 with a .925 save percentage and 3.02 GAA vs. Boston, while Spencer Knight went 1-1-0 with an .862 save percentage and 4.51 GAA.

Patrice Bergeron led all Bruins skaters with six points (3-3-6) against Florida, while four player -- David Pastrnak, Jake DeBrusk, Brad Marchand and Connor Clifton -- ranked second with four points apiece. For Florida, Aleksander Barkove led the team with six points (2-4-6) against Boston, while Sam Reinhart (3-2-5) and Matthew Tkachuk (1-4-5) ranked second.

The Bruins and Panthers haven't met in the playoffs since 1996, when Florida won a first-round series over Boston in five games en route to making a run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Game 1 is set for Monday night at TD Garden.