Mitch Marner scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period and the Toronto Maple Maple Leafs beat the Florida Panthers 4-3 on Wednesday night to take a 2-0 lead in their second-round playoff series.
Max Pacioretty and Max Domi each had a goal and an assist, William Nylander also scored and Morgan Rielly added two assists for the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll had 25 saves in place of the injured Anthony Stolarz.
Anton Lundell had a goal and an assist, and Aleksander Barkov and Brad Marchand also scored for the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 16 saves.
The best-of-seven matchup between Atlantic Division heavyweights now shifts to South Florida, with Game 3 set for Friday.
Woll got the start after Stolarz exited midway through Monday’s series opener following an elbow to the head from Panthers centre Sam Bennett.
Trailing 3-2 after two periods, Florida tied it at 5:33 of the third when Lundell shoveled his third goal of the playoffs past Woll.
Toronto regained the lead just 17 seconds later when Marner fired a shot from the boards that found its way through traffic past a surprised Bobrovsky.
Woll made a huge stop on Mackie Samoskevich with 9:59 left in regulation, and Maple Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe swatted a loose puck out of the crease with under six minutes to go. The Panthers continued to press and Sam Reinhart hit the post with just over three minutes left, but the Maple Leafs held on late.
Florida, a team that beat Toronto in five games two years ago at the same stage of the playoffs, went ahead 2-1 just 15 seconds into the middle period when Marchand — a Maple Leafs playoff nemesis as a member of the Boston Bruins — took a pass from Lundell down low off a turnover by Rielly and roofed his first of the playoffs.
Toronto tied it at 4:18 when Pacioretty chipped a puck past Panthers defenceman Seth Jones, finding Nylander in front who to buried his sixth goal of the playoffs. It was also the star forward’s seventh point in three games.
The Maple Leafs took a 3-2 lead with 2:51 remaining in the second when Domi took a pass from Steven Lorentz on a 2-on-1 and one-timed his second over a sprawling Bobrovsky.
Toronto got nothing from two power plays inside the game’s first 10 minutes before Florida struck 5 seconds into its first man advantage when Barkov fired the puck past Woll for his second at 10:58.
The Maple Leafs got their third power play of the period when Dmitry Kulikov was whistled for delay of game for shooting the puck out of play. Toronto again didn’t get much going until the second unit took the ice and Rielly fired a shot from the point late in the man advantage that Pacioretty — a healthy scratch to start the postseason before scoring the series clinching goal against Ottawa in the first round — tipped upstairs for his second with 1:41 left in the first.
The Panthers had defenceman Aaron Ekblad back following a two-game suspension for a forearm to the chin of Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel in the first round. The 29-year-old has played just three of his team’s last 25 games after getting suspended in March for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
