Florida finished season with four consecutive wins and points in six straight

The Florida Panthers came into the final game of the regular season with something to play for.

Florida still had a shot at winning the Atlantic Division, and they took it.

The Panthers survived a slow start on Tuesday, taking out the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 to close out the season with 51 victories and – combined with a Boston Bruins loss to Ottawa – a division title.

A cross-checking call on Gus Forsling gave Toronto an early power play that they would make the most of thanks to a sneaky shot by Mitch Marner.

About eight minutes later Noah Gregor’s wrist shot beat what appeared to be a screened Anthony Stolarz to give the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead.

Florida finished the first period with just six shots on goal to Toronto’s 14, and the Cats had no shots over the final 10:37 of the period, which included a full two-minute Panthers power play.

It didn’t take long after the intermission for the Panthers to turn things around.

Carter Verhaeghe snapped a shot past Joseph Woll just 28 seconds into the middle frame to cut the Maple Leafs lead in half.

While the Panthers would fail to score on back-to-back power plays in the following minutes, the momentum was clearly shifting in favor of the home team.

Florida outshot Toronto 14-2 over the first nine minutes of the period, and the Panthers next two shots would be big ones.

A sweet deflection by Sam Bennett and a rebound shot by Sam Reinhart just 10 seconds apart would take the Panthers from trailing 2-1 to leading 3-2.

Exactly three minutes later a point blast by Brandon Montour buzzed over the shoulder of Woll and into the top of the net, sending the Amerant Bank Arena crowd into a frenzy and giving Florida a 4-2 lead that they’d take into the third period.

The Panthers did well to put the clamps down on Toronto during the final frame, holding the Leafs to eight shots.

An empty-net goal from Reinhart would be the final nail in the coffin.

On to Tampa Bay and the playoffs.

Here are some thoughts and observations from Tuesday’s battle with Toronto:

Florida put up a franchise record 31 shots on goal during their dominant second period.

Verhaeghe scored for the fourth time in his past seven games. He missed Florida’s past six games after suffering an upper-body injury on April 1 in Toronto.

Florida finished 0-for-6 on the power play against Toronto while going 4-for-5 on the penalty kill.

Tkachuk picked up a pair of assists, giving him nine points over the final seven games of the regular season.

Reinhart closes the regular season with goals in three straight games and 57 on the season.

A pair of assists for Sasha Barkov gave him 18 points over his final 15 regular season games.

Bennett finished with a goal and an assist, giving him four goals and seven points over eight April outings. 

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