The Florida Panthers clawed again at residence to even the sequence in opposition to the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier than heading again to Toronto for Recreation 5. The Panthers constructed off their first sequence win in Recreation 3, with none apart from Brad Marchand being the overtime hero to breathe life again into the Panthers’ playoff hopes.
The Panthers held their very own far more successfully to begin this one than that they had finished in Video games 1, 2, and three. That’s to say, they didn’t permit the Leafs to attain within the opening minutes of the sport. Moderately, the Panthers set to work offensively early on, posting 4 photographs on aim within the first 5 minutes whereas solely permitting Toronto one. Very like the earlier video games on this sequence, each groups struggled to realize a transparent higher hand. The primary interval was earmarked by a ton of back-and-forth hockey. After failing to transform on their first three alternatives on the ability play, the Panthers opened the scoring on their fourth alternative with the person benefit courtesy of Carter Verhaeghe, who has been slowly however absolutely returning to kind over the course of the playoffs. The Panthers dominated within the shot column to finish the primary interval, 15-4.
The Panthers’ dominance in each ends of the ice continued into the second interval. The Maple Leafs solely obtained a single shot off within the first 5 minutes of the interval. The Panthers managed to pepper Joseph Woll with 6 photographs in the identical time-frame. The Maple Leafs had a number of stable alternatives within the second interval, most of which got here from the top of William Nylander’s stick, however the Panthers maintained composure and held them off, holding the sport tied heading into the third and last body. Shot totals nonetheless closely favored the Panthers at 29-12, however the scoreline held at 1-0, displaying simply how stellar of a sport Woll had put collectively as much as that time.
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The Panthers headed again to the ability play early within the third interval after Oliver Ekman-Larsson elbowed Evan Rodrigues (who didn’t return to the sport) within the head regardless of the 2 being nowhere close to the puck. The Maple Leafs killed it off and saved the scoreline at 1-0. With round eight minutes left within the sport, Sam Bennett stutter-stepped simply wanting Woll’s crease and netted a fantastic thing about a wrist shot to widen the Panthers’ result in 2-0. The Maple Leafs tried to mount a comeback within the waning minutes of the ultimate body after pulling Woll, however the Panthers held onto the shutout and evened the sequence 2-2.
