Panthers stumble out of the gate on their road trip after a late first-period goal ignited Toronto's offense, leading to a decisive Leafs victory.
The Florida Panthers began a season-long six-game road trip on Tuesday night in Toronto.
Florida fell behind and never recovered, losing to the Leafs 3-1 at Scotiabank Arena.
A tightly contested first period nearly ended without a goal, until a broken Panthers stick was the catalyst on a play that led to Toronto opening the scoring.
After A.J. Greer’s stick busted on a one-time attempt, the puck found its way down the ice and into Florida’s zone, where a pretty passing play was punctuated by Easton Cowan’s fifth goal of the season that came with just 24 seconds left in the opening period.
Toronto quickly made it 2-0 during the first minute of period two thanks to a nice deflection by Matthew Knies at the 42-second mark.
Just over four minutes later, Knies made a great play again, this time driving to Florida’s net with the puck before spinning around and firing a blind pass to the slot.
That’s where Auston Matthews was waiting, and his quick one-timer past an out of position Sergei Bobrovsky made it 3-0 Leafs early in the middle frame.
When Florida took the ice for the third period, they were without Brad Marchand, who did not finish the game.
With 8:22 to go, Carter Verhaeghe scored a goal from below the goal line to get the Cats on the board.
It was his 150th goal as a member of the Panthers in his 400th game with the team.
That would be as close as Florida would get, and a Bobby McMann empty-net goal in the final seconds made it that much more fun of a night for the home fans in Toronto.
On to Montreal.
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Photo caption: Jan 6, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) celebrates scoring a goal against the Florida Panthers during the second period at Scotiabank Arena. (Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images)