Boston defenseman Brandon Carlo, right, celebrates his goal with Derek Forbort on Monday in Sunrise, Fla. Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brandon Carlo has got himself a story to tell to his newborn son one of these days down the road.

As the Bruins were all basking in the euphoria of their Game 7 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, Carlo was told that his wife, Mayson, had gone to the hospital to have the couple’s second child.

After a day and half later, Crew Corbett Carlo was born at about 3 a.m. on Monday morning.

With precious little sleep, he hopped on an airplane at 2 p.m., got to Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, just after 6 p.m., and received all the hearty hugs and handshakes from his teammates. And then he went out and scored a goal in the Bruins’ 5-1 Game 1 victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the second round.

“I haven’t even thought about (what he’ll say to son), but it’s definitely a 24 hours I won’t forget,” said Carlo. “I think (David Pastrnak) skated over and grabbed that puck for me. That would be pretty special for sure. I don’t score very often, so it was a very cool experience for me.”

When Carlo made it to the rink on time, Coach Jim Montgomery knew that he was going to put his big defenseman in the lineup. Adrenaline can carry an athlete a long way.

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“It’s amazing in life… he finds out after we win Game 7 that his wife is going into labor. He goes through the whole process with very little sleep,” said Montgomery. “But when you have incredible experiences in life, like the birth of a child, it’s amazing the energy it gives you. That’s why we knew when he got here, I was going to put him in the lineup. The birth of my kids? It’s like winning a championship. You’ve got adrenaline for like three days. And when they adrenaline stops, you crash.”

Carlo admitted the timing was getting a little hairy if he wanted to make the game. The birth of a child is a blessed event, but time was short.

“We sped it up as fast as we could. We were flipping her around, putting her upside down, whatever we could do to get that baby out of there,” said Carlo with a laugh. “It was great. Last night we finally fell asleep for about an hour and the doctor came in and said ‘All right, let’s get this process going.’ And he popped out about 30 minutes later. To see his face and to have a healthy wife and healthy baby, I couldn’t be more happy.”

Carlo said he and his wife wanted give the baby the initials of CCC and, wouldn’t you know it, Charlie Coyle, set him up for the goal.

“We just had a couple of names picked out…that’s what we settled on,” said Carlo. “We liked all of the C’s involved in the name. And then CC passed me the puck on the goal tonight, so it’s pretty cool.”

The goal was also a dagger, coming with 20.6 seconds left to go in the second period to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead going into the third period.

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“The guys were pumped,” said Mason Lohrei. “I think everybody jumped up on their feet, screaming. Pretty cool for him and his family. Obviously a special day.”

Carlo thanked everyone in the organization, including the Jacobs family and GM Don Sweeney for getting him down to Florida in time and ready to go.

“I probably got my best amount of sleep on the plane ride down here. Thankful for the pregame nap,” said Carlo. “From Game 7 as well and all that transpired in that game. The emotions were high and then moving forward coming down here knowing we had to regroup and settle ourselves down to play this game tonight and I felt like we did a good job of it.”

WITH 16:38 LEFT in the first period, Panthers forward Steven Lorentz appeared to have a step on the Boston defense coming through the neutral zone early in Game 1, but Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort took two strong strides, reached his stick out and flicked the puck away, voiding any potential threat.

It wasn’t a remarkable play by any measure, but the veteran defenseman’s game has always been to quietly do things that prevent opponents from making remarkable plays. Forbort, who had been declared done for the season at the trade deadline, was back in the Bruins’ lineup playing like himself again, steady and effective. Forbort played 27 shifts over 17:30, including almost two minutes of penalty killing, in the Bruins’ 5-1 win over the Panthers that gave them a 1-0 series lead.

Against a stronger, more physical Panthers team, Montgomery wanted to counter with size and toughness. He had flirted with using Forbort against Toronto but didn’t pull the trigger until Game 1 against Florida, using him in place of Kevin Shattenkirk

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Montgomery came under fire for his lineup decisions in Game 5 against Toronto that didn’t work, but he tabbed Forbort and Patrick Brown, who they called up before the game, and both were effective.

“Forbort looked really confident. He was moving really well, the best we’ve seen him move probably before his leg injury last January,” Montgomery said. “So that was a pleasant surprise. I’m really happy for the young man because he’s worked really hard and he’s wanted to get back to wear the Spoked-B and help us in this playoff run.”

Carlo was impressed.

“I kept telling him all night that he’s an absolute warrior,” he said. “The way that he came in, and handled himself throughout with that mentally and physically was very impressive. Coming back into a regular-season game when you’ve missed that much time is hard. Coming back into the playoffs is a whole different animal. I’m so proud of the way that he handled himself tonight. I thought he played fantastic and did his job very well. He’s a great addition to have back for certain aspects of the game.

With Andrew Peeke expected back before long, Montgomery might be facing a good problem — nine defensemen for six spots.


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