Maple Leafs clinch berth in Stanley Cup Playoffs with win against Panthers
Mitch Marner broke a tie at 10:50 of the third period, and the Toronto Maple Leafs clinched a Stanley Cup Playoff berth with a 3-2 win against the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
After Auston Matthews retrieved his own rebound, he found Marner with a pass at the right face-off dot for a one-timer past Sergei Bobrovsky’s blocker to give Toronto a 2-1 lead.
“We just stuck with it. I don’t know what the scoring chances were, but it seemed like a low-event game, not a lot of space out there and kind of grinded away,” Marner said. “I thought we had a good first, I don’t think we had the best second but we just stuck with it.
“It’s great (to clinch). Obviously, that’s the goal at the start of the year, so that’s great but we have to finish out these games though. Still a lot on the line.”
The goal came 1:06 after Anthony Stolarz kept it 1-1 with a stretching left toe save on A.J. Greer, who cut across the goal crease.
“At the end of the day my job is to stop the puck, and you look down and (Bobrovsky) is making save after save so I kind of knew that I have to dial it in, but it’s going to be like that every night as we get closer and closer to playoffs,” Stolarz said. “Teams are fighting for position, their goalies are going to be on and you’re going to have to match them and I’m up to that challenge.”
Matthew Knies and Marner each had a goal and an assist, and Stolarz made 29 saves for the Maple Leafs (46-25-4), who are 4-0-1 in their past five. Toronto has made the playoffs each season since 2016-17.
“It was a battle, right?” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “I thought the first period was really good, came out and did what we wanted to do. Second period, I thought they made a push and we hung on and battled through that and in the third period we were better again, we were on our toes playing.
“Overall, I think that’s the type of hockey we knew we had to play against Florida. There’s no room, so you have to fight for space, you’re skating and it’s a lot of stuff around your net. It’s just winning battles, winning puck battles constantly. Chipping pucks out, chipping them in. There’s just no room but I think our team stuck with it and did a good job of that.”
Sam Reinhart had a goal and an assist, and Bobrovsky made 23 saves for the Panthers (44-27-4), who are 0-2-1 in their past three.
“It’s playoff hockey at this time of the year,” Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues said. “It’s always one-goal games it seems like. We’ll continue to fight and continue to build. We did a lot of good things. It’s not something we’re going to hang our heads about I don’t think.”
Florida was without captain Aleksander Barkov, who was late scratch. He missed the final seven minutes of the second period on Tuesday in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens because of an injury but returned for the third period and overtime. Coach Paul Maurice said after the game that he is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
“I don’t think it’s a long-term thing,” Maurice said.
The Maple Leafs lead the Tampa Bay Lightning by three points for first in the Atlantic Division. They are four points ahead of the Panthers.
Knies made it 3-1 at 15:09 when he took a stretch pass from Marner and deked to the backhand on a breakaway, putting a shot off the goalpost which bounced off Bobrovsky’s right skate and into the net.
Reinhart cut it to 3-2 at 17:22 on the power play when he shot through a screen from the high slot.
The Maple Leafs withstood the final 2:20 with Bobrovsky pulled for a 6-on-5 advantage.
“That’s hockey sometimes,” Panthers forward Anton Lundell said. “You just need to keep battling. I feel like we played pretty well today. Sometimes you’ve just got to push and keep battling and at some point, you’re going to get the bounces on your side.”
The Panthers went up 1-0 at 1:03 of the second period when Gustav Forsling one-timed Reinhart’s pass over Stolarz’s glove from the high slot.
John Tavares tied it 1-1 at 11:31, redirecting a pass from William Nylander at the top of the crease. He has scored in six of his past seven games, amassing nine goals during the stretch.
“It always feels good to contribute, score, put the puck in the net but I don’t try to get too down or get too high,” Tavares said. “Obviously enjoy it, it’s helping the team, but continue to focus on playing well and not try to get too caught up in all that.”
