Tavares scores four, Maple Leafs defeat Panthers to gain in Atlantic
via NHL.com
John Tavares scored four goals in a game for the first time in his NHL career, and the Toronto Maple Leafs gained in the race for second place in the Atlantic Division with a 7-5 win against the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
“As good as tonight was, we’ve got to keep pushing forward and keep working and keep finding different ways to be productive and hard to play against so we can continue to be as good as we can be into the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs,” said Tavares, whose 45 goals are three behind Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals for the NHL lead.
The Maple Leafs (45-25-6) moved to within five points of the Boston Bruins, who lost 5-4 at the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Maple Leafs and Bruins each have six games remaining.
Jayce Hawryluk had two goals and an assist, and Jonathan Huberdeau scored twice for Florida (33-31-12), which trails the Montreal Canadiens by 10 points for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Robert Luongo made 28 saves after replacing Sam Montembeault, who was pulled at 4:21 of the first period after Jake Muzzin scored with a slap shot to make it 2-0 on Toronto’s fourth shot.
The Panthers have lost four of their past five games, including 7-3 to the Bruins at home Saturday.
“It’s embarrassing the way we’ve played the last three or four games, me included,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “It’s unfortunate, and as part of the leadership group, I take full responsibility for it. The best we can do is learn from it and move on.”
John Tavares became the eighth player in @MapleLeafs franchise history – and only the third in the modern era (since 1943-44) – to record multiple hat tricks in his first season with the club. #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/fIHMhWD0Zk
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 26, 2019
John Tavares is the eighth player to score four goals in a game this season and just the fourth @MapleLeafs player to do so in the last 20 years. #NHLStats #FLAvsTOR https://t.co/UFP1tLiofh pic.twitter.com/dfi2PPWyTA
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 26, 2019
Roaring to victory.
Here are tonight's @OntarioLottery Game Winning Numbers.#LeafsForever #That649Feeling pic.twitter.com/Kwbvd2jQ2I
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 26, 2019