Series shifts back to Toronto for Game 5 on Friday night
Series shifts back to Toronto for Game 5 on Friday night
The Florida Panthers were hoping to make some franchise history on Wednesday night when they hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 4 of their second-round series.
Florida was looking to complete the first four-game sweep in the team's 29 seasons of existence.
That didn’t happen.
The Maple Leafs played what Head Coach Sheldon Keefe called their best effort of the season, defeating the Panthers 2-1 to force a Game 5 on Friday night in Toronto.
It's a glimmer of home for the Leafs, a team that has proven time and again this season just how dangerous they can be.
Still, Wednesday's game came right down to the wire despite Florida certainly not playing close to their best.
If Toronto can duplicate the work ethic and dedication they showed from start to finish on Wednesday, the Panthers will have their work cut out for them if they're going to get that fourth and deciding victory.
But Florida has been here before.
It was just two weeks ago when the Panthers were facing a much more difficult situation, facing elimination in the opening-round and needing three straight wins against the league-best Boston Bruins to avoid being eliminated.
The Cats would find their A-game and went on to six victories in a row.
On Wednesday, it was the Maple Leafs who dug deep and came up with a season-saving effort.
Now the question will be which team can bring their best on Friday night for Game 5.
It took a season-best effort, according to their coach, by Toronto in a game where one of their two goals came off an extremely fortunate and fluky bounce.
The game was that close.
The Panthers can certainly take solace knowing they took Toronto’s best punch and still played an extremely tight and winnable game.
FIRST PERIOD
Considering the Maple Leafs wanted to get off to as fast a start as possible, Florida did a good job keeping things quiet in the early stages and not allowing their rush game to get going.
Still, Toronto recorded five shots in the game's first five minutes, but Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped them all.
Anthony Duclair continued to use his speed to Florida's advantage, nearly getting a breakaway on Toronto rookie goalie Joseph Woll. Instead, he held on to the puck and started what turned out to be an extended shift by the Cats' top line.
The Panthers would get more zone time from the Sam Bennett line and then shortly after, Sasha Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe broke in on a 2-on-1, but Barkov's drive to the net would get cut off.
The Maple Leafs went cold for a while, going 12 minutes and 26 seconds between their fifth and sixth shots, but Florida couldn’t take advantage.
Matthew Tkachuk drew the first penalty of the game when Toronto defenseman Justin Holl was called for cross-checking the Florida All-Star in front of Woll's net.
The best look on the Panthers' power play came from Bennett, who drove off the half boards straight to the goal, but his backhand was stopped by Woll.
Florida out-shot the Leafs 7-6 during the first period but the teams went to their respective locker rooms with the game still scoreless. Shot attempts were 23-11 in favor of the Panthers.
SECOND PERIOD
Toronto came in on a slow developing 4-on-1 just over a minute into the period but Florida defenseman Brandon Montour came charging into the zone on a backcheck and took the puck off the stick of John Tavares before he could get a shot off.
Eetu Luostarinen was called for high sticking Michael Bunting, giving Toronto their first power play since Game 2, not long after.
An unfortunate bounce during the power play led directly to the Maple Leafs' opening goal.
Bunting tried to send the puck around the boards from the corner, but it went off the referee Jon McIsaac's knee and directly to the front of the net, where William Nylander was all alone. He popped the bouncing puck past Bobrovsky to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.
A few minutes later, Panthers captain Sasha Barkov was called for a rare penalty after taking Mitch Marner to the ice in Florida's zone. It was the second minor penalty taken by Barkov during the playoffs.
Late in the penalty, Bunting found himself all alone with the puck in the slot, but Bobrovsky came out to the top of his crease and made a nice blocker save, pouncing on the rebound before any Leafs players could get to it.
Toronto would end up recording six shots on the power play, but Bob stopped each and every one of them.
The Panthers would get their second power play after T.J. Brodie was called for holding the stick on a play where Sam Reinhart drive the net and nearly beat Woll.
The puck sat just outside the crease but Anton Lundell couldn’t get to it because his stick was being held by Brodie.
As the official blew the play dead, Radko Gudas put a bone-crushing body check on David Kampf in the corner. No penalty was called on Gudas as the hit came close enough to the whistle, but Toronto's players were not happy and took exception.
Kampf left the game temporarily but would later return.
Florida, meanwhile, would muster only two shots on the man advantage and still couldn’t get one past Woll.
Bobrovsky would have to come up big in the final minute to keep the Cats' deficit at one goal, stopping Tavares on a breakaway and then moments later making a nice upper body save on Ryan O'Reilly as the final seconds ticked off.
Playing to keep their season alive, Toronto took a 1-0 lead into the second intermission.
THIRD PERIOD
The first two minutes of the third period were spent in Toronto's end, thanks mostly to a great shift by the Sam Bennett line.
Play moved from end-to-end during the first ten minutes or so of the third period.
Both teams were generating opportunities around the net, but neither was able to convert them into shots on goal. The teams combined for just three shots on goal through the first ten minutes of the third.
Marner gave the Leafs a 2-0 lead on a long wrist shot that found its way through traffic and between the arm and body of Bobrovsky with 9:57 to go.
Bob had lost his goal stick during an extended Toronto shift and just as Gus Forsling handed it back to his goalie, Marner's took aim at the net. .
The Panthers would get a power play about a minute later when Alex Kerfoot tripped Marc Staal in the Toronto end of the ice.
Florida cashed in when Reinhart scored on the rebound of his own shot that came after a nice pass from Matthew Tkachuk. The initial attempt trickled through Woll and sat behind him in the crease, and Reinhart was there to poke it home.
Luke Schenn made a potentially game-saving poke check as Verhaeghe tried cutting to the slot with under two minutes to go. Had Schenn not gotten the puck, Verhaeghe would’ve had nobody between him and a sprawling Woll.
That would be the best look Florida got down the stretch.
Ultimately the Leafs survived the sweep. Game 5 coming up Friday.
GAME NOTES
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