Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll finished with 38 saves, including three in the shootout

A fun and exciting night in Toronto ended with frustration for the visiting Florida Panthers.

Florida thought they’d come away with a 2-1 shootout win, but an official review of what we thought was the game-winning goal would extend the game long enough for the Maple Leafs to skate away with two points.

The game got off to an exhilarating start, which turned out to be just a taste of things to come.

Each team’s goaltender, Anthony Stolarz for Florida and Joseph Woll for Toronto, came up with several key stops through the opening frame.

Another recurring theme.

The Panthers would be the ones to cash in first, thanks to a hard-working shift by the fourth line.

Kevin Stenlund’s sixth goal of the season gave the visitors a 1-0 lead with just over four minutes to go in the first period.

Florida took over after that, recording nine straight shots on goal to finish the period with a 15-6 advantage.

Things really appeared to be turning in the Panthers favor when Max Domi took a double-minor early in the second, but the Leafs killing off the four-minute penalty gave the home team a bit of momentum.

The second of Domi’s minors came for sucker punching Sam Bennett during a scrum, and Bennett got his revenge while looking Domi right in the eyes when the two fought a few minutes later.

Toronto was finally able to cash in on the scoreboard when Noah Gregor took advantage of a bouncing puck getting past Dmitry Kulikov at the Florida blueline.

Gregor caught up to the puck and sped down the left side of the ice before cutting in and lifting a shot over Stolarz’s blocker and into the net.

Both goaltenders continued to shine as the game moved toward its eventual end.

Jonah Gadjovich was called for an unintentional and unfortunate four-minute high-sticking penalty with about three minutes to go in the third period when Gregor speared to trip and fall forward, right into Gadjovich’s stick.

Florida killed off the first three minutes of the penalties, and then Toronto was called for too many men with 5.4 seconds left in the third.

Overtime was incredibly exciting but solved nothing, so the game required a shootout to decide which team would leave with two points.

Florida thought they won the shootout on a third-round goal by Evan Rodrigues, but officials ruled Rodrigues double-tapped the puck and took the goal off the board.

The next round, Gregor beat Stolarz and Cousins hit the post to end the game.

For the Panthers, it was their first shootout of the season.

Here are some thoughts and observations from Tuesday’s tilt in Toronto:

Advanced metrics for Florida’s top two lines were off the charts. Even strength scoring chances were 15-7 in the Panthers favor when the Sasha Barkov and Bennett lines were on the ice, and high danger chances were 6-1 Cats.

The Panthers finished the game with 39 shots on 84 attempts.

Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad both looked extremely comfortable. The small plays that each makes and the ways they impact the game are seemingly immeasurable.

Stolarz finished the game with 31 saves, including 12 of the 13 high danger shots he faced.

Florida’s Penalty kill continued to be superb. It’s killed 20 minor penalties in a row. 

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