Panthers score 6, push Maple Leafs to brink with Game 5 victory

TORONTO -- Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

“Every moment is a big moment, so you don’t know how it is going to turn up,” Bobrovsky said. “You’re just trying to focus on one shot, one moment and that’s pretty much it.

“I think [our team] did a great job. They played a good game, simple, strong, hard as a unit, as five guys. It was a good win for us.”

Jesper Boqvist and Aaron Ekblad each had a goal and an assist, and Sam Reinhart and Nate Schmidt each had two assists for the Panthers, who are the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division.

“I think Sergei is always available to get into a groove,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “His preparation doesn’t change, he has no idea about his stats. I think recently and it was true in the latter half of the Tampa [Bay] series (in the first round), the guys in front of him are playing a game he understands, that he has history with this year.”

Nicholas Robertson scored, and Joseph Woll allowed five goals on 25 shots before being pulled for the Maple Leafs, who are the No. 1 seed from the Atlantic. Matt Murray, playing his first Stanley Cup Playoff game since Aug. 5, 2020 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, made six saves after replacing Woll at 6:23 of the third period.

“First period they outskated us really,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “They had the puck, won the races. We played slow. They were fast, honest, hungrier. That’s the first period and that sets the tone for the game.

“It’s hard to explain it, we all have to be better, myself included. You can’t start the game that way.”

The Panthers, who have won three in a row, lead the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be at Florida on Friday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Bobrovsky kept it 0-0 at 8:35 of the first period when he stopped William Nylander on a breakaway.

“They’re going to get some looks. They’re a dangerous team and we try to defend tight for the most part,” Reinhart said. “Countless times, time and time again he makes those big stops for us and at this time of year, you need those timely stops. It was a great performance by him.”

The Panthers went up 1-0 at 14:38. After Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews turned the puck over to Aleksander Barkov below the goal line, Reinhart got to a loose puck and pushed it back to Ekblad, who shot over Woll’s blocker from high in the right face-off circle.

“Some sloppy play,” Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner said. “Not hard enough working. Gave them way too many opportunities around our net.

“I thought tonight was really the first night we didn’t reply well or play our game. When you do that against a team like that over there, they are going to make you pay and that’s what they did.”

Dmitry Kulikov made it 2-0 at 6:08 of the second period when his shot from the point was inadvertently deflected by Toronto forward Scott Laughton over Woll’s glove.

Boqvist pushed it to 3-0 at 10:05. After Marner sent a no-look backhand pass into the neutral zone that was intercepted by Gustav Forsling, Reinhart passed across the slot to Boqvist, who snuck behind Marner to redirect it from the left of the crease.

“I’m not going to look at a certain group of players, it’s everybody,” Berube said. “Myself included. There was mistakes, a lot of mistakes. Mistakes happen in games but it’s the way they happened tonight that’s disappointing more than anything.”

Boqvist, who had been a healthy scratch the previous two games, was back in the lineup to replace Evan Rodrigues, who sustained an undisclosed injury in Game 4.

“He’s the kind of a guy who scored big goals for us this year,” Maurice said. “He ended up with 12 but they weren’t the last goal in a run. Those are the fun stories for our room when [A.J.] Greer gets one, [Jonah] Gadjovich has one, because they work hard and they don’t get on the magazines, they’re not in front of it, but it’s special on the bench when those guys score.”

Niko Mikkola extended the lead to 4-0 at 14:01 when he shot past Woll’s glove from the top of the left face-off circle.

Greer put the Panthers up 5-0 at 6:23 of the third, chasing Woll. He jammed in a rebound after Gadjovich’s deflection of Schmidt’s point shot was blocked.

Sam Bennett pushed it to 6-0 on the power play at 9:10, shooting past Murray's glove from above the left hash marks.

Robertson, who returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch since Game 2 of the first round, cut it to 6-1 at 18:54 by backhanding a shot from the slot past Bobrovsky's left pad. That ended Bobrovsky’s shutout streak at 143:25 and represented Toronto's first goal in that span since Morgan Rielly scored at 10:56 of the third period in Game 3.

“The only thing we can do is regroup and reset and go out and we have to win a game to keep our season alive,” said Matthews, the Maple Leafs captain. “There’s confidence in this group of course. We’ve been able to bounce back all year and it’s no different now.”

NOTES: Bobrovsky passed John Vanbiesbrouck (141:31 in 1996) for the longest playoff shutout streak in Florida history. … The Panthers became the first team to have 17 players score through its first 10 games of a postseason since the Los Angeles Kings in 1993 (17). … Matthews’ goal drought reached five games. He has no points in the past two. … The home team had won the first four games of the series.