SUNRISE, FLA. 鈥 In the lead-up to Friday鈥檚 Game 3 of a Maple Leafs-Panthers second-round series that just got a lot more interesting, Florida coach Paul Maurice considered the unpredictable knife鈥檚 edge on which a team鈥檚 playoff fate can teeter.
Maurice referenced a pivotal Game 4 of Florida鈥檚 first-round series with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Panthers were leading the series 2-1 when Tampa had an extraordinary run of play in Game 4. The Lightning scored two goals in 11 seconds to take a 2-1 lead in the second period. In that moment, you could have been convinced the Lightning, who鈥檇 come into the series as favourites, were on their way to evening the series at two games apiece.
But that鈥檚 not how things turned out. Florida matched Tampa鈥檚 trick in the third period, scoring two goals in 11 seconds to retake the lead for good. Suddenly the Panthers had a 3-1 stranglehold on a series they鈥檇 go on to win in five games.
鈥淚t鈥檚 understanding that a change in momentum is always there for you, but it鈥檚 also there for the other team,鈥 Maurice said. 鈥淭rying to capture it is critical.鈥
To say the Leafs captured the momentum in the early moments of Game 3 would be understating it. For the second straight game, they scored on their first shot on Sergei Bobrovsky, Matthew Knies banging in a puck Mitch Marner pinged off the post. And the game wasn鈥檛 six minutes old before the Leafs had a 2-0 lead on a John Tavares wraparound as Bobrovsky swam out of position.
The ex-Boston Bruin shot towards the slot and got a favourable deflection at 15:27 to give
If the grind of playing more playoff hockey than any team in the NHL en route to back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup final was wearing on the Panthers聽鈥 well, out of the gate on Friday, the home team looked old and tired. The 36-year-old Bobrovsky appeared a beat slow. The idea of 海角社区官网owning a 3-0 series lead for the second straight playoff round聽鈥 something that hadn鈥檛 happened in Leafland since 1948聽鈥 seemed within reach.
But, as Maurice was saying before the game, what appears within reach can evaporate in a post-season instant if you fail to grab it. And such was the story of Toronto鈥檚 5-4 overtime loss. You could say the Leafs let an opportunity slip through their fingers in failing to preserve a couple of two-goal leads before Brad Marchand popped the winner in extra time. You could say the Panthers showed their championship mettle by shaking off their early-game sluggishness to tilt the ice when it mattered and make this a series.
Either way, what had the chance to be a cakewalk is now a dogfight. A night that began with the Leafs appearing to put a stranglehold on the Panthers ended with a battle that suddenly looks closer to neck and neck. Not that the Panthers are assuming that one win amounts to a turning point.
FORT LAUDERDALE - Craig Berube joked earlier this week William Nylander has little time for …
鈥淵eah, it feels good. But it鈥檚 all about doing it the next game,鈥 Marchand said. 鈥(The Leafs are) going to come out hard. You saw the way they prepared for the game tonight. They have that killer instinct right now.鈥
If 海角社区官网has the killer instinct, they couldn鈥檛 land Game 3鈥檚 kill shot (although Knies had a partial breakaway stopped by Bobrovsky that looked like it might have ended it). Maybe it was all to be expected. The Leafs were heavy underdogs in most sportsbooks. And as Knies was saying before the game, 海角社区官网was bracing for 鈥渉uge pushback鈥 from Florida. It took a while, but that pushback eventually came.
Aleksander Barkov scored a goal with a bank shot off Morgan Rielly鈥檚 blade to make it 2-1. And even after the Leafs restored the two-goal lead in the early moments of the second period on a Tavares power-play tip, the Panthers kept coming. They made it 3-2 on a goal credited to Sam Reinhart that was pushed across the line by the collective force of a goalmouth scrum the Joseph Woll could not repel. Less than a minute later it was 3-3 on a Carter Verhaeghe cash-in of a Florida rush. Before Florida鈥檚 dominant second period was over, it was 4-3 on a Tomas Nosek wrister from distance that beat Woll on the short side with a little help from Jonah Gadjovich. The shaky Woll, making his second straight start in relief of injured Anthony Stolarz, has had better games.
But the Leafs couldn鈥檛 blame the goaltender for taking their foot off the gas in the middle 20 minutes.
鈥淲e weren鈥檛 direct in the second, turned too many pucks over, allowed them to come back at us and play their game. Got hemmed in too much,鈥 Berube said.
Said Jake McCabe, the top-pairing defenceman: 鈥淭hat lapse in the second allowed them back in the game. Just keep our foot on the pedal as much as possible. Obviously they鈥檙e going to have their pushes, too. Weather those, and give our own push like we did in the third.鈥
海角社区官网fans get to see games at Scotiabank Arena in the heart of a busy downtown metropolis.
Indeed, just when it looked like the Panthers might have seized control, the Leafs steadied in the third. Rielly banked one in off Seth Jones to make it 4-4 with 9:04 to play in regulation. Alas if turnabout is fair play, maybe it made sense that Marchand banked one in off Rielly to win it, punctuating a long stretch of Panthers pressure in a zone manned by tired 海角社区官网defenders. Woll said he didn鈥檛 even see the winner, a high-arching wobbler that went over his head en route to lighting the lamp. It was Marchand鈥檚 fourth career playoff overtime goal.
鈥淏ounces go both ways,鈥 Woll said.
For all that, the Leafs still hold a 2-1 series lead heading into Saturday鈥檚 Game 4 here at Amerant Bank Arena. And there鈥檚 reason to believe they鈥檝e acquired the tools to steady themselves from a setback. Knies spoke of the businesslike approach to playoff hockey that鈥檚 been instilled by Berube, who won a Cup in St. Louis in 2019.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to get too high. There鈥檚 still a lot of hockey left,鈥 Knies said before Game 3. 鈥淗e鈥檚 here to win. He鈥檚 put that on us that it鈥檚 nice to get a win in round one, but the job鈥檚 not even close to finished.鈥
The job鈥檚 not even close to finished, and Friday night suggested it only gets harder from here.
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