SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) 鈥 The night’s last ricochet became a goal for Brad Marchand. It also became the biggest score of Florida’s season.
at 15:27 of overtime and the Panthers beat the 海角社区官网Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night, cutting their deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 2-1.
鈥淲e just competed the way that we know that we can,鈥 Marchand said.
Marchand’s shot hit Toronto’s Morgan Rielly and sailed over goalie Joseph Woll. It was one of four goals 鈥 two for each team 鈥 that struck an opposing player en route to the net.
Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Jonah Gadjovich scored for Florida, which got 27 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Evan Rodrigues had two assists for the Panthers, who are 13-2 in their last 15 playoff overtime games.
John Tavares scored twice, while Matthew Knies and Rielly also had goals for the Maple Leafs. Woll stopped 32 shots.
Game 4 is in Sunrise on Sunday night.
鈥淥vertime, we had our opportunities,鈥 Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. 鈥淚t’s a bounce. That’s what happens in overtime a lot of times.鈥
Florida erased 2-0 and 3-1 deficits, a rarity against 海角社区官网this season.
鈥 The Leafs were 30-3-0 when leading after the first period, including playoffs, the second-best record in the league.
鈥 They were 38-8-2 when scoring first, the league鈥檚 third-best record.
鈥 They had blown only 11 leads all season, none in the playoffs.
鈥 They were 44-3-1 in games where they led by two goals or more.
a series to 海角社区官网鈥 he’s 4-0 from his Boston days 鈥 and his goal gave the Panthers hope.
鈥淚t’s one second of a game,” Marchand said after his fourth overtime playoff goal, tying him for seventh-most in NHL history. 鈥淚t could be anybody. ... The details that go into making those plays happen is where the work is done.鈥
The Leafs got two goals that deflected in off of Panthers defensemen: Tavares鈥 second goal nicked the glove of Gustav Forsling on its way past Bobrovsky for a 3-1 lead, and Rielly鈥檚 goal redirected off Seth Jones鈥 leg to tie it with 9:04 left in the third.
鈥淵ou just control what you can control,鈥 Bobrovsky said.
threw the puck at the net and saw it carom in off a 海角社区官网stick to get Florida on the board, the first of the wave of deflection goals. Marchand’s was the last, and biggest, of those.
It came.
Reinhart was credited with a goal after Woll thought he covered up the puck following a scrum in front of the net. But after review, it was determined the puck had crossed the line. Florida had life, the building was loud again and about a minute later, Verhaeghe tied it at 3.
Gadjovich made it 4-3 late in the second, before Rielly tied it midway through the third.
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