Thursday, October 19, 2023

Panthers Top Maple Leafs In Home Opener

     The Florida Panthers opened up their 30th anniversary season home opener in the National Hockey League with a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday night. It was the Panthers 25th home opener at their current venue in Sunrise.   
     Florida(2-2-0) took a 1-0 lead with 2:52 remaining in the first period. John Klingberg made a backhand clearing pass from the end wall. Kevin Stenlund stopped it on the right wing and then sent a wrist shot from the top right circle by Ilya Samsonov for his first goal of 2023-24.
     It became 2-0 for the Cats with 6.9 seconds left in the frame. Sam Reinhart pushed the puck from behind the cage to Aleksander Barkov in the right corner. He angled a pass back to the right point and Oliver Ekman-Larsson snapped a shot for his first goal with his new team. 
     In the second period, Toronto(2-2-0) closed it to 2-1 on the power play with 8:08 to go. William Nylander fed a pass from the left-circle dot and John Tavares smashed one-time slap shot from the high slot which was saved by Sergei Bobrovsky. Mitch Marner poked in the rebound with a backhand shot from the left of the crease for his first tally of the year.
     The Maple Leafs had a 6-on-4 power-play opportunity with more than a minute remaining in the third period. Sam Reinhart fired a shot from his own blue line into the empty net with one second left for his fourth goal of the season. 

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