Florida dropped an opportunity at a crucial two points as the playoff race gets more frantic
Squandered opportunity felt like the theme Thursday night at FLA Live Arena.
From a pair of Panthers players opting out of wearing Pride Night warmup jerseys to a game in which Florida feel flat despite being desperate to come away with two points, there was little to write home about on a night that had so much potential just a few hours earlier.
The 6-2 loss to Toronto kept Florida from climbing back into the second Wild Card spot and gave the Pittsburgh Penguins, who were on the road in Dallas, a chance to create some space between the two competing clubs.
“That’s a tough one at a tough time of year,” Matthew Tkachuk said afterwards.
Thursday was the first time Florida had dropped consecutive games in regulation since Dec. 30 and Jan. 1, losses to the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers that head coach Paul Maurice has referenced many times as the turning point of Florida’s season.
The Cats won’t have much time to lick their wounds though. Saturday afternoon they’ll face a rested Rangers team fresh off a road win over Carolina.
FIRST PERIOD
Auston Matthews opened the scoring shortly after Toronto completed the first power play of the game.
Matthews came off the boards with the puck and fired it across the ice to Mark Giordano. Giordano drove to the net and Matthews followed behind.
The puck swung around the boards again, this time finding Mitch Marner between a couple of Panthers. Matthews meanwhile had settled into a soft spot in the high slot, and that’s where he was when Marner fed him the puck.
A screened Sergei Bobrovsky was slow to react, and just like that it was 1-0 Toronto 5:05 into the game.
Carter Verhaeghe thought he scored shortly after the Matthews goal, but it was immediately waved off. The officials deemed there was incidental contact between Tkachuk and Leafs goalie Matt Murray. Tkachuk was bumped into Murray by a Toronto defender.
Both teams traded chances for much of the opening frame, with each team’s goaltender coming up with several big saves.
Florida was granted its first power play late in the period after John Tavares was called for holding and they’d make the most of it.
What initially appeared to be an unbelievable save by Matt Murray turned out to be a good goal.
With Murray on his stomach after making a sprawling save, he reached behind himself and caught Tkachuk’s rebound shot with his glove. Upon further review however, the puck could be seen through the white laces in Murray’s glove, which was deemed to be over the goal line.
SECOND PERIOD
Toronto reclaimed the lead early on a play that came right off a draw in the Panthers zone. The puck came right to William Nylander who carried it behind Florida’s net. Eventually the puck tricked out front and through Bobrovsky’s crease, right back to Nylander who had floated over to the far post.
Just 97 seconds later, off another faceoff, Toronto gained control of the puck in the Panthers zone. Matthews carried the puck from behind Bobrovsky’s net out front and outwaited Radko Gudas and Sam Reinhart, who seemed to screen their goalie more than anything else.
Early in the second period of a crucial home game late in the season, Florida found itself down 3-1.
About ten minutes later, Florida tightened up the score off a great play by Nick Cousins.
With the puck going up the boards in the Toronto zone, Josh Mahura pushed it toward Sasha Barkov and the captain made a nice play to free up the puck for Cousins.
With a sudden burst of speed, Cousins drove toward the middle of the ice before dropping his shoulder and pivoting to his backhand side.
Cousins then delivered a perfect shot off the back side of his stick blade that went over Murray’s blocker and into the top of the cage.
There’s something about backhand goals that can make them seem so pretty.
Late in the period, a pair of penalties by two of Florida’s best three penalty-killing defensemen gave Toronto a two-man advantage that had an advantage.
With Ekblad and Forsling in the box, Toronto extended their lead back to two goals on a play that first saw Tavares hit the post before Bunting took the rebound and snapped the puck between a sprawling Bob’s legs.
THIRD PERIOD
In the early minutes of the third period the puck was mostly kept inside Toronto’s zone, but Florida couldn’t solve Matt Murray.
To be fair, the Maple Leafs were doing a good job of keeping Florida on the outer parts of the zone, limiting any potential high danger chances.
Another Toronto goal off a faceoff, this time off one in the Leafs own zone, acted as the final nail in the Panthers coffin.
Marner drove with the puck down the right side boards and fed it in front to a driving Alex Kerfoot, who had a step on Reinhart and beat Bob between the wickets.
Marner added an empty net goal with 4:11 to go after Maurice pulled Bobrovsky with Florida on the power play.
Ultimately Florida was able to generate some good, but not great, chances in the third period. Credit to Toronto for shutting things down after going up by two in the second and grinding out a solid road win.
QUICK HITS
- undefined
- undefined
- undefined
- undefined