Panthers score 3 in 1st period, hold off Maple Leafs

SUNRISE, Fla. -- The Florida Panthers scored three goals in the first period and defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday.

Brad Marchand scored twice, and Evan Rodrigues had a goal and an assist for the Panthers (30-25-3), who had lost five of six and were playing their first game since the break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. Anton Lundell had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves.

“I thought we started well, which is what we really wanted to do,” said Marchand, who won a silver medal with Team Canada in Milan. “At the end of the day, the points are what matter, right? We did some good things, thought we played really well for having a few weeks off as a group. There are a few things we can work on, but great start.”

John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs (27-23-9), who have lost two straight coming out of the Olympic break, including a 4-2 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday. Joseph Woll made 32 saves.

“It’s a tough start, right? Get down three and a short-handed goal is tough,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We know Florida, and knew they would push hard like that. You have to weather the storm and we didn’t do a good enough job of weathering that storm in the first. Second and third, we played our game and it was a competitive game.”

The Panthers scored twice in the first 5:13 of the game.

Marchand made it 1-0 at 3:18 of the first, following a turnover in the Toronto zone. Lundell sent a point shot into traffic before Marchand got to a deflected puck in the slot and beat a diving Woll to the blocker side.

Carter Verhaeghe then made it 2-0 on the power play, scoring from the right face-off circle off a backhanded pass across the slot from Rodrigues.

“The thing we wanted to see the most in that first period was speed and that was the best part of our game offensively,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We were really quick in that game. Being ready to go, we had a whole bunch of guys fly back (from the Olympics) and it’s a long flight for them, and they were fine. The guys who stayed back were sharp. And Evan Rodrigues was really good tonight, really dynamic. It was good.”

Rodrigues scored the first short-handed goal of his career (604 NHL games) at 16:40, giving the Panthers a 3-0 lead. After blocking William Nylander’s pass attempt in the neutral zone, Rodrigues raced to the loose puck, moved in on a breakaway and scored with a backhand move around Woll into an open net.

The Panthers outshot the Maple Leafs 16-6 in the first, when they also had a 32-9 advantage in shot attempts. Rodrigues had seven shots on goal in the period, the most by Florida player in a first period since Pavel Bure had nine on March 16, 2001.

“Our start was huge and we just rolled from there,” Rodrigues said. “They played last night, and sometimes coming off a long break, you can get your legs in that second game. So, we felt they would have a push but we were ready from the drop. After that, we played solid defensively. [Bobrovsky] came up big, and we rolled it over from there.”

Bobrovsky made 11 saves in the second period to keep it 3-0. With 1:39 left, he stretched out at the right post to stop Nylander with his left pad on drive to net, then got back into position to stop a Simon Benoit shot from the left circle three seconds later.

“We came out strong, scoring three goals, and it was a big first period for us. Then we played our game,” Bobrovsky said. “The guys did a great job in front of me, allowed me to see the puck. Great box-outs, great sticks. The little details. They did great.”

Bobrovsky’s shutout bid ended 47 seconds into the third period when Tavares cut it to 3-1 on the power play. Tavares’ pass attempt down low deflected off the skate of Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling and went between the skates of Bobrovsky.

“We didn’t handle their pressure well, and that’s obviously what they do,” Tavares said. “We knew there would be a lot of tight plays. They pressure the walls and are very aggressive. Execution through that was obviously poor to start the night.”

Mackie Samoskevich had a goal overturned for the Panthers at 9:05 after the Maple Leafs challenged for offside.

Marchand pushed the lead to 4-1 by scoring into an empty net at 16:51, and Matthew Tkachuk added an empty-net goal at 18:08 for the 5-1 final.

NOTES: The Panthers honored their seven medal winners from the Olympics during the game: Tkachuk (Team USA, which won gold); Marchand, Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart (Team Canada); and Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola (Team Finland, which won bronze). They held a special pregame ceremony that included Tkachuk and Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who was the U.S. Olympic captain. Florida general manager Bill Zito and equipment manager Teddy Richards, who were on the Team USA staff, dropped the ceremonial puck to the two forwards. … Marchand has 27 goals and is tied with Jaromir Jagr (2015-16) for the most in a season by a Florida player age 37 or older. … Matthews extended his assist streak to five games and matched the longest run of his career. … Tavares scored his 79th power-play goal with Toronto, tying Wendel Clark for the fifth most in franchise history.