The defending champions of the Stanley Cup Florida Panthers are a single win away from appearing at the conference final for the third time. Last wednesday, the Panthers embarrassed the Maple Leafs 6-1 and took a 3-2 lead in the series where they had lost the first two games. They can get to the third round with a victory Friday night in Sunrise, Florida. Read this article to know in depth more about what happened in the game between the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Maple Leafs vs the Florida Panthers
The Maple Leafs started off poorly with consecutive losses and were unable to stop the Panthers in the series. They were surpassed by their opponent 14-6 in the first period and were outscored 1-0. After this, Florida outscored Toronto 3-0 in the second half. The goalie of Maple Leafs Joseph Woll was for Matt Murray when Florida became 5-0.
Coach Craig Berube told reporters “I don’t have an answer for you for why”. He also said “Sports. Things happen.” Toronto reached the second round one more time since 2004 but another loss would mark 23 years since they last reached the conference finals. This fateful team last won the Stanley Cup in 1967.
The Depth Shown by the Florida Panthers Paid off
After the two losses in the opening, the Panthers coach Paul Maurice swapped out the fourth line and made changes to his top two lines for game 3. This decision led to the impressive turnaround of the game in the favour of the Panthers. Since the move, Fourth liners Aj Greer (Game 5) and Jonah Gadjovich (Game 3) were able to score. Jesper Boqvist was inserted into the top line Wednesday for injured Evan Rodrigues and scored a goal.
17 Panther players have a goal in the playoffs. Florida got three goals from defensemen on wednesday, while Sam Bennett scored the sixth goal of the playoffs. Overall, this was a very satisfying game for the Florida Panthers.
Maple Leaf Stars Failed to Achieve their Goal
One of the interesting things about this series is that Auston Matthews doesn’t have a single goal. But he had a giveaway on the first goal of the Panthers by Aaron Ekblad. Mitch Marner who had a pending giveaway with a backhand pass on the Panther’s third goal. He only has a single shot in the last three games. The top powerplay didn’t look good during a 3rd period effort.
Playoff Sergei Bobrovsky is Back
He gave up thirteen goals in the first three games of the series but nothing after Morgan Riley scored midway through the third period of Game 3 before Nick Robertson scored with a minute and 7 seconds left in Game 5. Though Toronto was unable to get many shots in the first period, Bobrovsky was back on a William Nylander breakaway and a Matthew Knies power-play shot.
Wrapping Up
In game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Florida Panthers gave a unique performance by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs. The victory came after the Panthers capitalized on their early momentum. This win is a big achievement for them which made them advance to the Eastern conference finals, since 1996. Only time will tell if they can win the legendary Stanley Cup for another time.
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