Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Panthers Climb Over Maple Leafs

      The Florida Panthers marched by the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena. The Panthers, who stopped a four-game losing streak, are now one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Eastern Conference second wild-card position.
     Florida(37-31-7) struck first at 1:00 of the opening frame. The Maple Leafs turned the puck over deep in their own end. Eetu Luostarinen made a drop pass in the high slot and Anton Lundell snapped a shot from the slot area past Ilya Samsonov for his 10th goal of the campaign. 
     Toronto(44-20-10) tied it up at the 3:13 mark of the second period. Zach Aston-Reese collected his third goal of the year on assists from T.J. Brodie and Wayne Simmonds.
     In the third period, the Maple Leafs moved in front 2-1 at 6:40. Mitch Marner fed the puck from the left corner and Auston Matthews blasted a one-time slap shot from the top left circle by Alex Lyon for his 37th goal of the season. Marner extended his point streak to 11 games. 
     The Panthers pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and scored on the power play with 58.5 seconds remaining to tie it 2-2. Brandon Montour angled a pass to his left from the top of the zone. Aaron Ekblad fired a one-time slap shot from the left circle and Sam Reinhart deflected it in from the low slot for his 28th goal this season. 
     In overtime, the Cats won it 3-2 at the 1:41 mark. Reinhart pushed the puck ahead out of his zone. Aleksander Barkov came in on a two-on-one breakaway down the left side. He slid the puck across from the low left circle and Montour tapped it in from the right of the crease. Montour broke a club record as he got his 63rd point in a single season as a defenseman. He passed Keith Yandle who accomplished it in 2018-19. 

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