The Boston Bruins announced Tuesday that second-year defenseman Brandon Carlo will miss the rest of the season with a fractured left ankle.
Carlo was injured Saturday when he went down awkwardly battling for a puck against the Florida Panthers at home and had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher.
It marks the second straight year Carlo has been injured just ahead of the playoffs, after a late-season concussion kept him from competing in the 2017 postseason.
Carlo's injury makes the return of injured defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Zdeno Chara all the more important for the Bruins, who played at the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday night in a battle of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference.
Chara returned Sunday after missing nine games with an upper-body injury, and McAvoy was back Tuesday after being out 15 games with a sprained knee.