One of the biggest questions facing the Bruins going into the playoff series with the Florida Panthers was whether or not they had enough scoring too get past their new rivals.

On Friday night, that question was finally and definitively answered in the negative.

In Game 6 at the Garden, the Bruins had numerous chances to extend their one-goal lead – and the series to a seventh game – but they could not do it. The Panthers tied it and then sent the B’s into the off-season when Gustav Forsling beat Jeremy Swayman with a sneaky follow-up shot that went through the legs of Parker Wotherspoon and past Swayman’s shortside.

That lifted the Panthers to a 2-1 win in Game 6 and 4-2 series victory.

In the third period, Charlie McAvoy took a roughing penalty on Sam Bennett with 6:04 left in regular. As the B’s were in the process of killing it off, Evan Rodrigues tripped John Beecher with 24 seconds left on the Florida PP.

On the advantage, Sasha Barkov came up with a big block on David Pastrnak and the Panthers killed it.

But before the game could get to OT, Forsling delivered the dagger and the Panthers advance on Garden ice for the second straight season.

As one might expect and as we have so often seen in pivotal playoff games, the B’s pushed hard at the outset of the game but weren’t able to crack the goalie. The fourth line earned the first power play of the game when Aaron Ekblad hooked Jame van Riemsdyk at 3:38.

But the power play sapped all the B’s momentum

for much of the rest of the period. They didn’t get a shot on the PP and, as the Panthers’ forecheck started to work, Florida got the next nine shots on net.

The B’s, however, would strike first on an electric play in the final minute of the first, and one that surely set off Panthers’ fans.

Brandon Carlo, who was not in the play, was tangled up with Carter Verhaeghe. Just as it looked like they were separating, Verhaeghe jumped into a standing-still Carlo in an attempt to get Parker Wotherspoon’s breakout pass along the wall and landed flat on his back. No call.

Meanwhile, Jake DeBrusk made a brilliant backhand pass from the right wing boards from his own blue line that sprung Pavel Zacha for a breakaway at the Florida blue line. Zacha had not scored a playoff goal in the previous 24 post-season games in his career, but he calmly showed his forehand then beat Sergei Bobrovsky on his backhand. Not a bad way to get on the board.

It was an eventful first few shifts in the second period, though no damage was done. First David Pastrnak was sent on a clean breakaway by Morgan Geekie but the B’s best goalscorer could not beat Bobrovsky through the five-hole with his backhander.

And then the B’s were called for a record-setting seventh too-many-men penalty, but they managed to kill it off.

The B’s then missed another gorgeous chance when Pastrnak fed Charlie McAvoy in front of a wide-open net but his backhander bounced just to the left of the cage.

The Grade A’s continued to mount for the B’s. Zacha stole a puck behind the Florida net from Ekblad and fed Justin Brazeau in front for an open one-timer but Bobrovsky turned it away.

All the missed opportunities finally caught up to them at 12:44. DeBrusk had fallen in the defensive slot after blocking a shot and was trying futilely to play the puck. Before Geekie could get to it, Anton Lundell pounced and snapped a wrist shot past Swayman’s glove.

It seemed as if Bobrovsky was getting in the B’s heads a bit at that point. Pastrnak had a promising chance on a quick 2-on-1 with Brad Marchand and he elected to attempt a pass that never made it to the captain.

The Panthers appeared to be starting to take control of the game late in the second, in which they held a 13-7 shot advantage. But it was deadlocked at 1-1 going into the third.