Maple Leafs Pay Back Panthers

     The Toronto Maple Leafs blasted the Florida Panthers 6-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday night. It was the second meeting between both teams in the last five days.
      Toronto(23-10-2) scored late in the first period with 1:43 left. Mitch Marner made a cross-ice pass from the right wing to the left circle and Auston Matthews tapped the puck past Roberto Luongo during a power play.
     In the second period, the Maple Leafs added to the lead and moved ahead 2-0 at 3:49. Morgan Rielly carried the puck to the left circle and sent a cross-ice pass. Matthews powered a one-time slapshot from the right circle for his second goal of the contest.
     The Leafs made it a three-goal gap at the 11:14 mark as Nazem Kadri scored his ninth goal of the season. Carter Brown and Rielly were both credited with assists on the play.
     Florida(13-14-6) surrendered a power-play goal at 2:38 of the third period and they trailed 4-0. Kadri was in the slot and backhanded a pass to Matthews at the left-circle dot. His wrist shot was saved, however John Tavares swept in the rebound with a backhand from the edge of the blue paint.
     The Maple Leafs made it a five-goal margin at the 5:41 mark. Marner raced with the puck down the left wing and stopped behind the Panthers cage. He centered it to Tavares and his one-time slapshot from the left circle went in for his second goal of the game and 23rd goal of the season.
     The Cats finally broke the shutout with 9:32 to go. Jared McCann angled the puck from the top point to Henrik Borgstrom in the top right circle. He skated a couple of steps that snapped a shot by Frederik Andersen for his first goal of the year.
     Toronto regained their five-goal gap on the power play with 4:46 remaining. Marner was able to get the tally by James Reimer with the man advantage.