Home sweet home.
It certainly was for the Florida Panthers on Friday night. After dropping the first two games of their second-round playoff series to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Panthers found themselves in a critical situation. Going down 0-3 to a hot Toronto team would likely be too deep a hole to climb out of.
However, back home in Sunrise, Florida, the Panthers got a big win in a postseason thriller. The game saw a number of wonky goals, plenty of hard hits, and took more than 15 extra minutes to finish.
Game Recap
Another hot start by the Leafs had Florida immediately playing from behind again. Matthew Knies and John Tavares each kept their respective hot streaks by netting a goal apiece. Tavares went behind the net and beat Sergei Bobrovsky on a wraparound. Things were not looking great for the Panthers at that point.
Florida's captain got them on the board midway through the first, although technically, the Leafs’ Morgan Reilly put the puck in the net after Aleksander Barkov deflected it off his stick. So at that point, the Leafs had netted three goals. Fortunately, one of them was for the Panthers.
The physicality ramped up for the remainder of the period. Both teams traded unsuccessful power plays, and later played four-on-four after Max Domi was called for roughing for a hit to Carter Verhaeghe’s face, and Verhaeghe was called for a hold on Mitch Marner.
The turning point was 4:13 into the second period. After another Tavares goal put Toronto up 3-1, a chaotic, unclear Sam Reinhart goal was reviewed and called good. The officials had not called a goal or seen the puck cross the goal line, but after review, it was a clear goal for Florida. Just over a minute later, Sam Bennett gets a turnover and feeds Carter Verhaeghe to tie the game at 3. 15:07 into the second, Jonah Gadjovich scored to give the Panthers their first lead of the game.
It was 4-3 at the start of the third period, but with less than 10 minutes remaining in regulation, Morgan Reilly scored a goal (this time for his own team) to tie the game at 4. Both teams made pushes and had some close calls to go ahead, but Bobrovsky and Joseph Woll both made big saves down the stretch to send the game to overtime.
Overtime was much like the latter half of the third period. Both teams had good looks and opportunities to win, but Woll and Bobrovsky kept making clutch saves on both sides. Finally, over 15 minutes into the OT period, Brad Marchand–newest Panther and notorious Leaf killer–scored the game-winning goal from the left circle. Ironically, the shot deflected off Morgan Reilly yet again, making it impossible for Woll to stop.
We have a series
With the big win, the Panthers made this a 2-1 series and built some much-needed momentum. Bobrovsky was much better than in the prior two games, and the Panthers seemed energized by the home crowd's energy. Game 4 will be Sunday night at Amerant Bank Arena, where the Cats will look to even up the series at two games apiece.