William Nylander got the Maple Leafs off to a flying start in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The star winger scored twice in the first period before adding an assist as Toronto built a big lead early before holding on late to down the Florida Panthers 5-4 and take Game 1 on Monday night.
Matthew Knies and Chris Tanev, with a goal and an assist each, and Morgan Rielly provided the rest of the offence for the Leafs, who got eight saves from Anthony Stolarz before he left with an undisclosed injury in the second period.
Joseph Woll stopped 17 shots in relief. Max Pacioretty and Jake McCabe added two assists apiece to open the teams’ best-of-seven series.
Seth Jones, Eetu Luostarinen, Uvis Balinskis and Sam Bennett replied for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots for the defending champs. Brad Marchand and Carter Verhaeghe had two assists each.
Florida beat Toronto in five games at the same stage of the 2023 post-season on the way to making the Cup final. The Panthers went one step further 12 months later when they hoisted hockey’s Holy Grail for the first time in franchise history.
Game 2 goes Wednesday back at Scotiabank Arena. The matchup of Atlantic Division heavyweights then shifts to South Florida.
Toronto opened the scoring inside a rocking rink just 33 seconds after puck drop when Nylander beat Bobrovsky through the five-hole from a tight angle for his fourth goal of the playoffs.
The Leafs, who beat the Ottawa Senators 4-2 in the first round to register just the second series win for the Original Six franchise in more than two decades, went up 2-0 at 12:51 when Nylander scooped up a big Bobrovsky rebound before deking the goaltender to the ice and roofing his second of the period.
Jones got the visitors on the board with a shot from the point through traffic on a power play at 16:57 for his second after Toronto was whistled for too many men.
But the home side restored its two-goal lead just 19 seconds later when Nylander sent Rielly off to the races on a 2-on-1 with John Tavares. The defenceman and longest serving member of the current roster looked Bobrovsky off before firing past the netminder’s blocker for his third of the post-season.
Florida, which beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games to advance, got a man advantage in the second that saw Stolarz make a couple of stops, but Bennett caught him with a sneaky elbow to the back of the head.
Toronto made it 4-1 at 7:50 when Tanev’s knuckling shot from distance fooled Bobrovsky for his first.
Stolarz, who backed up Bobrovsky on the way to Florida’s Cup win, was caught by television cameras vomiting by the bench a few minutes later before getting replaced by Woll.
Nylander had a chance to complete the first playoff hat trick of his career on a shot that knocked the stick out of Bobrovsky’s hand that stayed out as the Leafs headed to the locker room up three.
But Luostarinen cut the deficit back to two on a redirection 1:41 into the final period with his second. Balinskis then made it 4-3 at 4:30 with his first after a Panthers push inside a suddenly tense building.
Toronto failed to connect on two power plays later in third before Bobrovsky denied Max Domi on a break.
Knies made it 5-3 with six minutes left in regulation with a move to the backhand on another breakaway for his fourth.
Florida wouldn’t go away, and Bennett got his team back within one with 1:55 left in regulation on a pinballed shot off a Toronto stick for his fourth, but Woll and the Leafs held the fort late to secure an early lead in the series.
The Panthers were without defenceman Aaron Ekblad, who finished off a two-game suspension for his headshot on Tampa forward Brandon Hagel in the opening round.
Leafs winger Mitch Marner, who turned 28 on Monday, and wife Stephanie welcomed the couple’s first child over the weekend.
Game 1 winners in a best-of-seven own an all-time series record of 531-249 (. 681), including 6-2 in the first round this spring.
The Leafs have three players from the Panthers’ championship team — Stolarz, defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steven Lorentz.
Ekman-Larsson was asked about his time with quick-witted Florida head coach Paul Maurice before Game 1.
“A lot of fun quotes, very smart man,” said the blueliner. “I had a blast.”
