Florida was behind 5-1 after two periods before scoring three unanswered goals during the final frame

It’s probably a good thing the Florida Panthers are playing back-to-back games after the way they looked on Monday night in Toronto.

Florida was outworked, outhustled and ultimately, badly outscored though two periods after briefly making it close in a 6-4 loss to the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.

Toronto jumped out to a quick first period lead on a pair of goals just 33 seconds apart by Nicholas Robertson and Auston Matthews.

At that point, Florida was still generating opportunities, both at even strength and on the power play.

It was with the man advantage where the Cats came up empty on their first three chances, all coming during the game’s first 21 minutes.

A Brandon Montour goal right after that third power play expired seemingly gave the Panthers some life during the opening minute of the second period, but a tap-in goal by Tyler Bertuzzi 39 seconds later eliminated any kind of momentum Florida was hoping to generate.

David Kampf made it 4-1 Toronto off a bad giveaway by Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, and then Matthew Knies added a fifth Leafs goal on another rough shift by the pairing of Kilikov and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Toronto had scored five goals on just 17 shots and it was difficult to fault Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky on many of them. The play in front of him was some of the worst of the season by the Panthers.

Still, Bobrovsky was pulled after two periods and Anthony Stolarz came in for the third.

Vladimir Tarasenko had a strong third period, deflecting home a point shot by Niko Mikkola and then later picking up the primary assists on goals by Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett that briefly brought Florida back within one, but by then it was too little too late.

We’ll see if the Panthers can build off that third period when they’re back in action Tuesday night.

On to Montreal.

Here are some thoughts and observations from Monday’s matchup with the Leafs:

Tarasenko has three goals and six points over his past five games.

Verhaeghe’s assist on Montour’s goal was his first point in three games. Verhaeghe left the game early in the third period and did not return. 

Montour had also been pointless over his past three games.

Panthers captain Sasha Barkov extended his points streak to four games with an assist on Reinhart’s goal. He’s got six points during the run.

Including tonight, Tkachuk has just two assists and no goals over his past five games. 

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