The Florida Panthers had their backs against the wall and faced the possibility of going down 3-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday, which is why they played with desperation, and perhaps that gave them enough of an advantage to put them over the top in the 5-4 overtime victory on Friday. 48 hours later, the Panthers have the opportunity to even the series and swing the pressure back on the Leafs in Game 4 at Amerant Bank Arena, but this will be the opportunity for Toronto to prove they have a higher level of composure than Leafs clubs of seasons past.
Toronto did a lot of positive things on Friday, including not folding after allowing three second-period goals, and tying the game in the third period to force overtime, but they will have to find a way to deal with Florida’s high-level intensity and ferocious forechecking, especially on Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev. The key to the Panthers’ turnaround was more traffic in front of Joseph Woll, and the inability of the Leafs defense to clear the front of the net.
Leafs head coach Craig Berube said on Friday that the only goal he found fault in his goalie was the Jonah Gadjovich go-ahead marker, but that was a result of the Panthers’ fourth liner heading to the net to screen Woll and then deflecting Tomas Nosek’s shot. Toronto has benefited from Florida not getting great goaltending from Sergei Bobrovsky in the series, but it is still a question of whether it is more Toronto being effective than the 36-year-old being worn down after two long playoff runs.
Berube did not provide any more information on the status of Anthony Stolarz, other than that he’s improving and has not been on the ice since being injured a week ago. Goalie Matt Murray, fully recovered from an illness that kept him from backing up in Game 3, will be on the bench in support of Woll in Game 4.
Auston Matthews missed the morning skate on Sunday, but Berube indicated that the Leafs captain will be in the lineup for Game 4. Matthews has been excellent defensively and on draws, but his being wildly inaccurate and now his absence calls into question what he is dealing with and how much it is affecting him.
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Leafs top prospect Easton Cowan did not follow up his MVP campaign with an equally impressive regular season, as the 19-year-old’s offensive totals dropped from 96 to 69 points this season, but Cowan is stepping it up once again in the OHL playoffs. On Saturday, the London Knights winger scored five points (2 goals, 3 assists) in Game 2 against the Oshawa Generals, becoming the club’s all-time leading playoff scorer with 89 points.
Mike what do you think of the Ovie like backcheck by Mitch on the 3rd goal. To that point the Leafs had answered Florida’s goals all series, but didn’t get a chance the time. Seems like a mistake like that can turn a whole series around
Go leafs go