Florida Panthers Back to Playing Their Game in 2-0 Game 4 Win Over Toronto Maple Leafs
The Panthers got back to their defensive style of game, Sergei Bobrovsky shut the door and Florida suddenly has tied its series against the Toronto Maple Leafs at two games apiece.
SUNRISE, Fla. — The Cats have landed on their feet — who would have thought?
After dropping the first two games of their second-round series against the Maple Leafs in Toronto, the Florida Panthers came roaring back with two consecutive wins on home ice to even the series at 2-0.
And they finally put together a dominant trademark performance in their 2-0 Game 4 victory on Sunday night.
Sergei Bobrovsky put up a 23-save shutout, the Panthers put up a 37-shot onslaught by sticking to their heavy forecheck and they held the speedy Maple Leafs attack to just four shots off the rush.
“That was more like the Panthers playoff hockey that we are used to,” Sam Bennett said. “It was a tighter game, less opportunities that we gave up, not many odd man rushes at all. We did a pretty good job of limiting their chances and Bobrovsky obviously stood on his head. It was a pretty good game all around.”
The Panthers finally had their first complete start of the series, outshooting the Maple Leafs 29-12 in the opening two frames and putting a lid on their rush attack.
Florida spent a good portion of the first period on the power play — outshooting the Leafs 15-4 in the process — but came up empty on its first three attempts. It was not until Carter Verhaeghe banged home a one-timer from Matthew Tkachuk nine seconds into the Panthers’ fourth power play of the opening frame to put the Panthers ahead 1-0.
The goal marked Verhaeghe’s fourth goal and eighth point of the postseason through nine games, and his second goal in as many games after he put up a two-point outing to help take Toronto down in overtime in Game 3.
“Through nine games, Carter has been our most consistent forward,” coach Paul Maurice said. “Playoff hockey is hockey he understands. It resonates with him. It’s played at an incredibly high pace. It’s very physical. That’s where he is at his best. Everything kind of falls in line for him.”
That was where it stayed for a while.
The Panthers killed off three crucial penalties in the second period — only allowing the Leafs to generate four shots in 5:03 of power play time — and held down the fort to get to the third period with a one-goal lead.
Gustav Forsling tracked down William Nylander on a breakaway and poked the puck away from him with 3:15 to go in the second period to make sure of it.
"There's words I can't really use to describe that,“ Nate Schmidt said of the play. “But it was awfully exciting."
After killing off another penalty early in the third period, the Panthers appeared to be headed to a five-minute power play.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson hit Evan Rodrigues with a high elbow that left him down on the ice for quite some time, and he had to be helped off the ice by head trainer Dave DiNapoli. Despite that, the penalty was reduced to a two-minute minor upon review. Rodrigues did not return to the game and will need to undergo further evaluation on Monday morning, per Maurice.
The Panthers could not generate much of anything on that power play and the Maple Leafs fought their way back into it until Florida finally found its equalizer.
Bennett out-waited Joseph Woll on an odd-man rush with the defender taking Verhaeghe away as the passing option and picked the top corner with 7:51 to go to make it a two-goal game.
And that was the dagger.
“Carter [Verhaeghe] being able to drive [the net] there pulls the defenseman away. When you give [Bennett] a chance there,” Schmidt said. “He is such a patient player and has an unbelievable poise about him to be able to suck [Woll] out and get him out of position. At some point the goalie doesn’t have any more options. To have that kind of patience, I don't know if I have that in my game so it's fun to watch.”
Bobrovsky held on to make 12 third-period saves and the Panthers suddenly find themselves coming back to Toronto with a full head of steam after evening the series up at two games apiece.
“It feels good,” Verhaeghe said. “We are going into Toronto with some confidence. We like taking care of home ice and playing in front of our fans, it was awesome the last couple of games. We will go to Toronto and try to win the next one.”
Look Back At Game 4
P&P+ Podcast: TOR/FLA Game 4 Recap
After three games in which the Panthers didn’t often look like themselves, they sure did in Game 4. The Leafs offered next to nothing offensively and the Panthers defense looked as locked in as they did all last postseason on the road to the Cup. What have they figured out? Has the Leafs frustration started to boil over a little? What does all of this m…