The Florida Panthers’ season was on life support — it has been for most of the last week, frankly — and a final chance to potentially save it came in the form of a power play with a little more than two minutes left Wednesday in Canada.
Even though the Panthers led early, there was barely a minute when they were truly competitive with the Toronto Maple Leafs and yet they were only down by a goal in the final minute, with a 6-on-4 advantage and a chance to steal a point from a Stanley Cup contender in Ontario. Aaron Ekblad launched a bomb from the point, Sam Reinhart tipped just enough of the puck and somehow Florida forced overtime to snap a horribly timed four-game points drought. A few minutes later, Brandon Montour finished off one of the most unlikely wins of the Panthers’ season, beating the Maple Leafs, 3-2, in overtime in Toronto.
The star defenseman pumped his fist and beamed after he finished off an assist from All-Star center Aleksander Barkov. Two plays by Florida’s two star defensemen — Ekblad’s assist with 58.5 seconds left in regulation and Montour’s goal with 3:19 left in overtime — keep the Panthers’ postseason hopes afloat.
