TORONTO – For the second straight game, close wasn’t good enough.
Suffering their second consecutive one-goal defeat, the Florida Panthers came up just a hair short in a 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
“I think you have to understand your game,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “We didn’t like our Game 1, but we liked our game here tonight. Come out on the road, we lost two one-goal games, and we get to go back home now.”
Despite being down 2-0 in the series, the Panthers always say they’re ready to play seven.
“That’s the mentality,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “Get home, get our crowd behind us and put together a good home game.”
As it has been for a while now, the penalty kill stepped up early for the Panthers.
Down a man just 2:20 into the first period after an interference penalty, the Panthers survived Toronto’s first power play, which featured a few big saves form Sergei Bobrovsky.
Later, the Panthers, this time after an oddly late whistle on a trip for Brad Marchand, held their ground a second time, holding the Maple Leafs to no shots on goal on the power play.
After a pair of successful kills, the Panthers were rewarded with their own power play.
Making quick work out of their trip to the man advantage, Aleksander Barkov, moments after winning a faceoff, took a pass from Seth Jones and beat Joseph Woll with a wicked wrist shot from the left circle to break the ice and make it 1-0 at 10:58.