The Florida Panthers survived 10 penalties and a penalty shot on the second night of a back-to-back set, and a near constant barrage from a Stanley Cup contender.
They could not quite get through overtime, though, and settled for just one point with a 5-4 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Canada.
It was about as eventful as an NHL game gets. The Panthers scored goals on the power play and penalty kill, and at even strength. The Maple Leafs got seven power plays and Florida got three. There was a replay review after a goal, a penalty rescinded and reversed after officials got together to sort out exactly who illegally passed Toronto goaltender Ilya Samsonov’s stick, a goalie change and even a penalty shot in the opening seconds of the third period of a one-goal game.
The Panthers twice took a first-period lead, only to let the Maple Leafs answer quickly both times — once just 44 seconds later and again 2:46 after center Anton Lundell finished Florida’s first short-handed goal of the season. Florida built a two-goal lead in the second period when star center Aleksander Barkov scored on a power play in the first two minutes, chasing Toronto goaltender Matt Murray from the game, and kept surviving those penalty kills pretty much all the way until the last few seconds of the second.
In the end, it still all led to another blown lead for the Panthers, who were up by two goals with just seconds left in the second period.
Florida committed six penalties in the first 29 minutes and made nine trips to the penalty box by the end of the second, and had another penalty call reversed when the official realized the Maple Leafs, rather than forward Sam Bennett, were to illegally pass their goaltender’s loose stick. For the most part, the Panthers weathered it and even scored a short-handed goal in the second period, but the ninth one — probably the most questionable of the bunch — finally bit them and started the collapse in Toronto.
With 15 seconds left in the second period, defenseman Radko Gudas leveled Pierre Engvall as the Maple Leafs wingers crashed to the net. He knocked Engvall into star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, dislodging the net and leading to a stoppage, and everyone paused to see what the call would be. A few seconds later, they whistled Gudas for charging — prompting coach Paul Maurice to erupt on the bench, and Gudas to laugh and shake his head as he went to the penalty box — and Toronto cashed in with 2.1 seconds left in the period to cut Florida’s lead to 4-3.
Even then, the call wasn’t so smooth. The referees needed to review the play to see whether the goal was again knocked off its moorings before it crossed the line and it was confirmed after video showed Bobrovsky was the one to dislodge the net.
The third period began just as chaotically as the first two. In the very first minute of the period, defenseman Gustav Forsling tripped star winger William Nylander on a breakaway, giving the Maple Leafs a rare in-game penalty shot. Florida briefly survived when Bobrovsky slid to his right and cut off Nylander’s angle, forcing a shot over the crossbar by the star winger to keep the Panthers ahead.
A few minutes later, Florida’s lead was finally gone on a deflection by Nylander, tying the game at 5-5 with 14:01 to go.
By then, the Panthers were seemingly out of gas, having to play so much of the game down a man. Toronto outshot Florida, 37-19, and the discrepancy was even more pronounced in the third, with the Maple Leafs outshooting the Panthers, 9-4, with a 7-2 edge in high-danger chances.
Still, Florida got the game to overtime with one excellent final 5-on-5 shift, getting off a couple shots and keeping Toronto pinned back in its zone for long enough to secure one point.
The Panthers took three of four possible points on the back-to-back and now sit three points out of postseason position.
They could not, however, get the second. Florida didn’t register a shot in overtime and Nylander finally got free for the game-winning goal with 3:07 left in the extra session.
