Maple Leafs Hold Off Panthers

     The Florida Panthers were in an unusual circumstance in which they almost used three different goaltenders in net and fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Tuesday night at BB&T Center. It was the fourth game of a seven-game homestand for the Cats. The Maple Leafs were able to snap a franchise record 16 consecutive road losses. They last won a road game on December 31 in Boston.
     Florida(28-23-13) moved ahead 1-0 with 17.2 seconds to go in the first period. Jimmy Hayes was in the left circle and fed Brandon Pirri in the slot and his snap shot went through the legs of Jonathan Bernier. Roberto Luongo left the contest at the end of the first frame after he suffered an injury from a shot by Leo Komarov which hit him in the right clavicle.
     In the second period, Toronto(26-33-5) scored on their second power-play opportunity at 4:40. Phil Kessel put a wrist shot on net from the left circle which was saved by Al Montoya, but Tyler Bozak pounced on the rebound from the top of the crease.  
     The Panthers bounced back at 13:12 and retook the lead 2-1 with their first attempt on the power play. Jonathan Huberdeau had the puck in the right corner and sent it to Aaron Ekblad at the top of the zone. He fired a slapshot for his 11th goal this season and broke a tie with Ed Jovanovski for most goals by a rookie defenseman in franchise history.
     It took just 22 seconds into the third period for the Maple Leafs to tie it up at 2-2. Jake Gardiner blasted a shot from the blue line which went wide right and rebounded off the back boards. Nazem Kadri swept in the puck from the right edge of the blue paint for his 16th goal. Montoya was injured on the play and would be replaced ten minutes later by Luongo. Florida goaltender coach Robb Tallas was considered to replace him as their third goalie of the night because Luongo was already dressed in street clothes.
     The Leafs added another goal at 5:28 to pull ahead 3-2. Former Panther David Booth carried the puck through the left circle, placed a cross-ice backhand pass to Peter Holland in the right circle and he smacked it into the Florida cage.