Florida has won four of its five games away from home during the postseason
Florida has won four of its five games away from home during the postseason
The Florida Panthers did something on Tuesday night they hadn't done since 1997.
They won a Game 1 in a postseason series.
Florida jumped out to a first period lead and never looked back, taking the opening game of their second-round matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs by the score of 4-2.
Despite playing an overtime Game 7 just two nights prior, Florida continued to show the physical prowess and foreboding forechecking that was the signature of their first-round victory.
The Panthers now hold a 1-0 lead over the Maple Leafs in their best-of-7 series.
Carter Verhaeghe scored the deciding goal late in the second period, his second straight game-winning goal for Florida after scoring the overtime series-clincher in Boston on Sunday.
Also starring for the Cats was goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who was on top of his game from start to finish.
He ended up with 34 saves but made several key stops during the third period to keep the Panthers ahead for good.
Florida will now catch their collective breaths in Toronto before getting back at it on Thursday night for Game 2.
FIRST PERIOD
Florida's top two lines got the team off to a good start with back-to-back shifts in the Leafs zone.
The fans in Toronto got a quick charge when Auston Matthews got behind the Panthers defenders on an early breakaway, but a long wrist shot was stopped by the blocker of Bobrovsky.
The Panthers aggressive forecheck was doing its thing but Sam Bennett was called for an elbow while flying in for a hit on Morgan Reilly just 2:20 into the game.
Toronto had solid possession and pressure, but Bobrovsky made two stops and the game remained scoreless.
Just after the penalty expired, Gus Forsling was called for tripping with the puck still in Florida's zone, giving the Leafs a second straight power play less than five minutes into the game.
Bobrovsky stood tall again, with a pad stop on Calle Jarnkrok standing out, keeping Toronto's potent power play off the board.
It wasn’t long after the kill that an extended shift by Florida's second line resulted in the first goal of the game.
Brandon Montour started the play with a great angled pass off the boards in the neutral zone, hitting Nick Cousins in stride for a clean zone entry.
Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk went to work deep in Toronto's zone to keep possession, then later in the shift Cousins won the puck behind the net to extend the possession.
From below the goal line, Bennett pushed the puck to Tkachuk in the corner. He made a nice move to get around Mitch Marner before firing a shot on Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov.
The rebound bounced to Cousins, who sent a backhand past Samsonov and into the net at the 9:25 mark of the period.
Both teams would get chances, but Florida was keeping the puck in Toronto's zone much longer and pressuring the hell out of the Leafs every time they tried getting out of their own end.
If not for a couple brilliant saves by Samsonov, Florida easily could've taken a multi-goal lead late in the period.
The constant pressure from the Panthers led to Toronto taking its first penalty of the game during the final minute of play as Mark Giordano was called for hooking Tkachuk as he drive the net with Bennett.
Florida outshot the Leafs 12-9 in the first period, but held Toronto to just five shots at even strength.
After one, the Panthers held a 1-0 lead.
SECOND PERIOD
Toronto did a good job killing off what was left on Giordano's penalty when the second got started.
Bobrovsky would be called upon several times during the first few minutes of the period, with a save on a driving Reilly standing out.
Florida's first good look of the period came about seven minutes in when Reinhart made a nice move just inside the Leafs blue line to free himself up for a shot on Samsonov, but the Toronto tendy made a nice stop with his left pad.
Sam Bennett gave the Panthers a brief 2-0 lead after he deflected a point shot by Aaron Ekblad that was also tipped by Toronto rookie Matthew Knies on the way to the net, but the scoreboard cushion wouldn’t last.
Right off the ensuring draw, Matthews found Knies cutting down the slot and he baited Bobrovsky to stretch out of position, backhanding the puck into a wide open net.
The goals were separated by nine whole seconds.
Not even 40 seconds later, Josh Mahura took a high sticking penalty in front of Florida's net, sending the Leafs' lethal power play back to work.
Bobrovsky came up huge on the penalty kill, making four saves, including back-to-back blocker stops on Matthews from in tight.
Michael Bunting tied the game with a nice move on Bob after a slow line change by Florida led to him getting in alone behind the defense, through Marc Staal and Radko Gudas running into each other and taking one another out of the play did not help things.
Less than three minutes later, hometown boy Carter Verhaeghe scored on a breakaway to put the Panthers back in front 3-2.
Anthony Duclair did a nice job in the neutral zone to win a boards battle and shovel the puck to a streaking Verhaeghe, who snapped a shot past Samsonov's glove.
Despite surrendering a 2-0 lead and being outshot in the period 14-6, it was the Panthers who took a one-goal advantage into the second intermission.
THIRD PERIOD
Barkov got a quick look at Samsonov a minute into the period after Verhaeghe won the puck below the goal line, but the Leafs goaltender stood tall at the top of his crease.
The teams played over five minutes of uninterrupted, end-to-end play before a Bobrovsky save on William Nylander finally brought a whistle over seven minutes into the period.
As long as the Panthers held the lead, they were more than happy to watch time tick away off the clock.
The ice began to tilt in Toronto's favor as the game moved below ten minutes to go, but Bobrovsky continued to come up with stops.
Tkachuk drew a penalty in the defensive zone on Jake McCabe, but Florida would never see the power play.
That's because Montour fired home his sixth goal of the postseason on the delayed call to put the Cats up 4-2 with 7:36 to go in the third.
Bobrovsky made a nice stick check on Matthews when he got free down low with just over five minutes left, keeping the Leafs superstar off the scoreboard.
Toronto pulled their goalie with 2:49 to go after gaining an offensive zone draw.
Bobrovsky made nine saves during the final minutes, with the highlight coming off a Nylander shot that Bob stretched out and made a spectacular left pad save.
With about 40 seconds left and without his goal stick, Bobrovsky then robbed Tavares with a glove save on the doorstep.
Bennett would be called for a high stick on Ryan O'Reilly with 37 seconds to go, but at that point it was too little, too late for Toronto.
The Panthers, for the first time in a long time, have a 1-0 lead in a playoff series.
GAME NOTES
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