Morgan Rielly welcomed his teammates after his third-period goal, which bounced off Sergei Bobrovsky and Seth Jones before going in.

It was a game of bounces between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers, with the home side coming out on top in overtime 5-4. However, if there was a stat for how many times a player banked a puck in, or had the puck bounce off them and in, Rielly would take the cake in Game 3.

In the first period, after Matthew Knies and John Tavares put the Maple Leafs up 2-0, Aleksander Barkov lost control of the puck, but as Rielly attempted to swipe it away, he put it behind Joseph Woll for Florida's first goal of the game.

The playoffs are about bounces, but Rielly's luck, going both ways, on Friday night was uncanny.

After Florida had taken a 4-3 lead in the third period, courtesy of Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, and Jonah Gadjovich, the Maple Leafs needed a goal. And with how many of their late-game tallies have come off ricochets, you knew it would happen again.

And indeed it did.

Brad Marchand Scores In Overtime To Give Panthers First Win Over Maple Leafs In Series Brad Marchand threw the puck on net, and a lucky bounce off Morgan Rielly gave the Florida Panthers the overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

Auston Matthews threw the puck to an empty side in Florida's zone, and Rielly skated to pick it up. Within a second of having it on his stick, the defenseman threw it at the net, banking it off players like it was pinball, before it landed across the goal line.

"I thought that there was times in the third where we were desperate. We’re down and pushing, and I think we were in the driver’s seat," Rielly said after Toronto's Game 3 loss.

"There’s obviously times early in the game where it felt like we were doing a good job when they were putting pressure on us. It’s like anything, over the course of the game, there’s ebs and flows. We didn’t expect an easy game by any means."

'Can't Use My Hands As Much': Maple Leafs' Matthew Knies Told To Keep Arms Down In Front Of Panthers' Sergei Bobrovsky Matthew Knies had a unique way of screening Sergei Bobrovsky during a Toronto Maple Leafs power play early in their 4-3 win in Game 2 over the Florida Panthers.

Rielly's fourth goal of the playoffs tied the game at 4-4, with nearly nine minutes left in the third period. Of course, no one scored in the final minutes, forcing the Maple Leafs and Panthers to overtime for the first time in their series.

During the first half of overtime, William Nylander and Matthew Knies each had partial breaks but couldn't solve Sergei Bobrovsky. At that point, when those don't go into the net, you figure that it'd be a lucky bounce that ended the game.

And indeed, again, it did.

‘We've Gone At It Quite A Bit’: Maple Leafs’ Scott Laughton Unfazed By Trash Talk Battles With Panthers’ Marchand Scott Laughton says he isn’t new to the chirping game, and he’s certainly not backing down from one of the current NHL’s greats at it. Ahead of Game 3 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers, Laughton addressed his back-and-forth with Panthers forward Brad Marchand in the first period of Game 2.

Brad Marchand fires the puck below the blue line, ricocheting it off Rielly and over the head of Woll, giving Florida their first win of the series.

"It happens. That’s how pucks are going in right now, it seems," Rielly added. "Not just in this series, look at last series, and kind of around the playoffs, that’s how it’s going in."

Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube added a similar sentiment to Rielly: "It’s a bounce. That’s what happens in overtime a lot of times."

'Just Leave Him Alone': How William Nylander Comes Up Clutch In Pivotal Moments For Maple Leafs Against Panthers Another game, another William Nylander goal, and <a href="https://x.com/TicTacTOmar/status/1920272635977437283">another memorable celebration</a>.

The Maple Leafs are now 2-2 in overtime during the 2024 playoffs. They won Games 2 and 3, but lost Game 4 of the first round against the Ottawa Senators in overtime. A bounce is all it will take in the extra frame, and luckily enough, it occurred for the Panthers on Friday.

Who knows if this series will go back to overtime or if we will ever see the number of bounces Rielly had in this game again. Game 4 is on Sunday in Florida.

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