The Florida Panthers were one shot away from falling into an 0-3 hole in their second-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Instead – thanks to an overtime goal by Brad Marchand – the Panthers are now one win away from evening the series and heading back to Toronto with confidence and momentum.
The story of Game 3 from a Florida perspective was the roster moves made by Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice and the balanced scoring the Cats ended up providing.
Maurice swapped out Florida’s entire fourth line, inserting Tomas Nosek, A.J. Greer and Jonah Gadjovich into the lineup, perhaps looking for a spark from a group that had yielded some strong advanced metrics when paired up during the regular season.
They were utilized regularly on Friday, seeing shits both late in the third period and throughout the overtime session.
As for balance, all four of Florida’s lines produced a goal in the 5-4 OT victory, something seen throughout the season and a key element of the Panthers’ success.
The question of whether they will be able to keep that going on Sunday will be something to keep an eye on.
Toronto has played exceptionally well during this series, particularly in terms of taking the Panther away from the way they want to play hockey.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Game 4 against the Maple Leafs:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jonah Gadjovich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt – Dmitry Kulikov
Scratches: Mackie Samoskevich, Uvis Balinskis, Nico Sturm, Jesper Boqvist, Jaycob Megna
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