McCann's goal helps Panthers top Maple Leafs in overtime

Jared McCann scored with 1:14 remaining in overtime, and the Florida Panthers moved within five points of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with a 3-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at BB&T Center on Tuesday.
Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau scored and Roberto Luongo made 37 saves for the Panthers (29-25-6, 64 points), who have won three in a row and 10 of their past 13.

WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Panthers highlights]
Florida trails the Columbus Blue Jackets by five points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. The Panthers have played three fewer games.
"It is huge to win some games right now, so it's always nice to find ways to win. I think we've been winning at the end of the game, three games now," Huberdeau said. "We just have to build off of it and I think it gives confidence to our group. We need these points, so we have to battle every game to get these points."
McCann won it for the Panthers when he carried the puck into the Maple Leafs zone on a breakaway and put a wrist shot past Curtis McElhinney's blocker.
"The reason (McCann) was out there in overtime, and I picked him over a lot of guys, was that I thought he had a game," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "I thought he played one of his strongest games, 200-foot game. He deserved to be out there."
"I had my legs going for sure," McCann said. "I'm just thankful for the opportunity that Coach showed confidence in me and I'm a guy where if you show confidence in me, I play with confidence myself. Moving forward, I have to play with more of that."
Dominic Moore and Zach Hyman scored and McElhinney made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs (39-20-7, 85 points), who are in second place in the Atlantic Division, four points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning and one point ahead of the Boston Bruins.

The Maple Leafs next play the Washington Capitals outdoors Saturday in the 2018 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
"I thought both goalies were good, every time we play (Luongo), he seems to be good," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "I thought he was getting old, but he's just good. I thought we had the puck lots and in control. We got down 2-0 and battled our way back on a back-to-back night. In the end, you have to give them credit.
"I look at the two games (a 4-3 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday), and we probably deserved two points of the four we got and that's what we got."
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead at 11:02 of the first period on a power play when Barkov took a pass from Huberdeau, who was behind the net, and one-timed a shot at the top of the goal crease.
Huberdeau scored his first goal in 10 games when he made it 2-0 at 1:42 of the second period with a backhand shot from behind the goal line.

"I wasn't thinking really about it. If it's assists or goals, I want to help the team offensively of course," Huberdeau said. "It's always good to score a goal, but we just have to keep going and get the next points."
Moore scored 1:11 later when he put in a rebound at the side of the net to make it 2-1.
Hyman tied it 2-2 at 12:34. William Nylander stole the puck from Evgenii Dadonov in the neutral zone and carried it into the slot before dropping a pass to Hyman.

Goal of the game

McCann's goal at 3:46 of overtime.

Save of the Game

Luongo's save against James van Riemsdyk at 2:35 of overtime.

Highlight of the game

Hyman's goal at 12:34 of the second period.

They said it

"It's a tough game with the back-to-back situations and a desperate hockey team over there. I thought we played a pretty good game overall. The 3-on-3, it's just one of those things, you're waiting for the right break and they took advantage of it tonight and capitalized." -- Maple Leafs goaltender Curtis McElhinney
"I don't think it was our best game by any means, but the good thing is we're finding ways to win. We've got to clean some stuff up I think; that's not the type of hockey we want to be playing, but when it comes down to the wire we find ways to win and good teams do that." -- Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo

Need to know

Hyman had gone 10 games without a goal. … The Panthers are four games above .500 for the first time this season.

What's next

Maple Leafs: Play the Washington Capitals in the 2018 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVAS, NHL.TV)
Panthers: Host the New Jersey Devils on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; SN360, FS-F, MSG+, NHL.TV)