Panthers Come Back On Maple Leafs

     The Florida Panthers pulled off a two-goal comeback as they scored four goals in the third period to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-4 on Sunday at BB&T Center. The Panthers won for the fourth time in five games while the Maple Leafs fell for the fourth time in their last five games.
     Florida (16-9-8), who outshot the Leafs 13-3 in the first period, started out with a 19-5 shot advantage until they surrendered the first goal at 6:39 of the second period. Richard Panik skated down the right side and snapped a shot from the right circle dot for a Toronto(20-13-3) 1-0 lead.
     The Panthers evened it at 8:24 when Brian Campbell sent a long lead pass to Jonathan Huberdeau at the Maple Leafs blue line. He skated through the left circle and put in a wrist shot from the edge of the crease.
     The Cats took their first lead of the game at 10:13 on an odd-man attack as Sean Bergenheim fed a pass from the right wing to Jimmy Hayes in the slot area and he fired a one-time shot by James Riemer.
     The Maple Leafs tied it as Joffrey Lupul connected a pass from the right corner to a wide open Roman Polak in front and he lifted a shot over the left glove of Roberto Luongo at 14:16.
     Toronto added a power-play tally at 17:30 when Cody Franson centered the puck to James Van Riemsdyk for his 16th goal of the season. The Leafs made it 4-2 with 1:01 in the second as Lupul carried the puck down the left side and sent a backhand pass to the crease where Nazem Kadri rammed in a one-time shot. They were outshot 29-13 after two periods.
     The Leafs blew a two-goal lead in the third period as the Cats scored four different times in the final frame. Dmitry Kulikov scored his first goal of the season from right point on a slapshot following a pass from Jussi Jokinen from the right wing 2:45 in the third.
     The Panthers tied it 4-4 midway through the period at 10:09. Huberdeau dropped a pass from the right wing to Willie Mitchell, who saved a loose puck from leaving the Toronto zone, at the left point. His wrist shot through traffic found the twine for the Panthers captain.
     Florida regained the lead on the power play with 3:15 to go in regulation. Kulikov blasted a top zone shot which was redirected by Brad Boyes in the slot area. Scottie Upshall added an empty net goal with 35 seconds left on assists by Tomas Kopecky and Derek MacKenzie.