The sloppy Florida Panthers almost pulled off a third comeback, but ended up dropping Game 1 to the highly-opportunistic Toronto Maple Leafs by a 5-4 count at Scotiabank Arena.
Looking to build off its win in the Battle of Ontario, the Maple Leafs got a huge early jolt when Max Pacioretty fended off Gustav Forsling behind the net and sent the puck back up the boards to William Nylander. Nylander raced towards the net and zipped a shot past Sergei Bobrovsky, who was screened by John Tavares, thirty-three seconds after opening puck drop. The second assist on the play went to Jake McCabe. That just can’t happen…
To their credit, the Panthers shrugged off the goal and took almost total control of the puck for a considerable spell, but simple things like accurate passes, routine handles, and keeping their feet were, inexplicably, an issue. Florida got the game’s first power play, and it was an ugly, broken thing that was easily killed, resulting in a momentum shift back to the Buds.
The Maple Leafs would double its lead at 12:51 off the rush. After taking an outlet pass from Nylander, Pacioretty dropped to former Panther Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and he wristed a sharp-angle shot on goal that Bobrovsky repelled out into the slot. Nylander claimed the juicy rebound and took his time before lifting the puck over Bobrovsky’s glove.
Florida would get another crack at Toronto’s penalty kill and this time they took advantage. Carter Verhaeghe was looking to shoot from the left circle, but without a lane, fed Matthew Tkachuk behind the cage. Tkachuk waited patiently for a gap to open before sending the puck out to Seth Jones up high. Jones snapped a shot off that caught a screened Anthony Stolarz guessing, and it found the twine of the top portion of the net with 3:03 left in the frame.
The Panthers would get burned by another Toronto counter and find themselves again down by two a mere nineteen seconds later. Brad Marchand tried to feather pass into the slot to Eetu Luostarinen. The pass didn’t connect and both Anton Lundell and Dmitry Kulikov were knocked to the ice. Nylander chipped the puck past Marchand, sending Morgan Rielly off to the races with Tavares. Rielly wisely chose to shot on the 2-on-1 break and solved Bobrovsky’s blocker for his third of the playoffs. Ugh…
The Panthers played somewhat better in the second, but couldn’t score on any of their nine shots to cut into the deficit, which the Maple Leafs added to at 7:50 when Chris Tanev’s knuckling shot from the right point skipped off the ice and sailed past Bobrovsky. The assists on the goal went to McCabe and Matthew Knies, and came in large part due to Aleksander Barkov losing the defensive zone draw to Auston Matthews.
A few minutes later, Stolarz, who took a hard shot to the mask in the first, was bumped in the noggin by a puck-hunting Sam Bennett and had to leave the game at the 10:12 mark, bringing Joseph Woll into the contest.
Down by three in the third, the Cardiac Cats surfaced early in the frame when Lundell got the puck back along the half boards after Marchand lost control and centered into the slot for Luostarinen, who stuck his stick out to redirect the puck by Woll at 1:39.
Marchand would get another secondary helper when he collected the rebound of an unsuccessful Lundell attempt and passed to Nate Schmidt, who faked a shot and moved the puck to Uvis Balinskis. Balinskis moved down into open space in the left circle and wired a shot past Woll, who was too deep in the net and off his angle, bringing the Panthers within a goal with plenty of time (15:30) remaining on the clock.
With the teams trading chances, Florida stayed within a goal by killing off two penalties and getting a big glove save from Bobrovsky on Max Domi’s breakaway.
Unfortunately, Toronto would restore its two-goal advantage with six minutes left on the clock after the Panthers had a good chance at the other end, but Barkov’s goalmouth pass to Reinhart, who was tripped, failed to click.
After Reinhart crashed into the back boards, the Maple Leafs got out of their zone when Mitch Marner chipped Tanev’s languid pass up the boards past Schmidt to Knies. A grievous changing error (what the actual f**k?) left Panthers down a defenseman, and Knies collected Marner’s clear and cruised in on Bobrovsky with Verhaeghe in desperate pursuit before calmly backhanding the puck over his glove.
The Panthers would pull Bobrovsky and claw back to within one at 18:50 when Verhaeghe got a piece of Tavares’ clearing attempt and the puck came right to Bennett in the lower left circle. Bennett quickly pulled the trigger and his shot ramped up off the stick of Brandon Carlo and handcuffed a helpless Woll.
Woll would have his pads in the right place to deny a Verhaeghe bid that was tipped by a Toronto defenseman with time running out to barely get the Buds over the finish line.
It was a tale of kitties in this one. The Panthers were simply dreadful, for the most part, over the first forty minutes They were much, much better in the third, finally getting to their game, but ultimately, the last bullet they blasted into their own foot, allowing the Knies’ breakaway, was a killer. As sloppy as the Panthers were, a lot of the blame for this loss has to go to Bobrovsky, who did not have a good outing, failing with both glove and blocker to come up with enough big stops to save his team from themselves.
All that said, full credit to the Maple Leafs, who took advantage of the lethargic Cats, looking faster both physically and mentally in the early going, and punishing the Panthers on the counter.
Rakes & Bags
- William Nylander’s first period hijinks (2G/1A) earned him First Star honors. His standout performance has him tied with Kyle Connor and Mikko Rantanen for the league lead in postseason scoring with 12 points.
- Florida’s fantastic penalty kill carried over from the first round. The Panthers took care of all five of Toronto’s man-advantage chances, limiting them to a total of seven shots on goal.
- In addition to his two helpers, Carter Verhaeghe put five shots on net and was credited with a game-high seven hits. It was first multi-point game of this playoffs.
- Before leaving with an apparent concussion, Anthony Stolarz turned aside 8 of 9 shots. Joseph Woll made 14 saves in relief, and Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 24 stops. Best to Stolarz, hope he is ok.
- Sam Bennett registered a game-high seven shots and dished out five hits. Bennett has produced at least a point in five of Florida’s six postseason tilts.
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