William Nylander had two goals and an assist, and the Toronto Maple Leafs held on for a 5-4 win against the visiting Florida Panthers in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series on Monday.
‘Outstanding,’ defenseman Morgan Rielly said of Nylander, who gave Toronto a 2-0 lead a little over halfway through the first period. ‘Obviously he came out and was feeling it. That obviously helps set the tone. It’s nice to get the first one and then just go from there.’
Matthew Knies and Chris Tanev each had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who will host Game 2 on Wednesday.
Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz stopped eight of nine shots before exiting the game midway through the second period a few minutes after he was hit in the head by Florida center Sam Bennett. Joseph Woll made 17 saves in relief.
Seth Jones, Eetu Luostarinen, Uvis Balinskis and Bennett scored for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves.
Down by three after two, Luostarinen narrowed Florida’s deficit to 4-2 at 1:39 of the third period, getting his stick out to tip a pass from Anton Lundell over Woll’s glove.
Balinskis scored far side from the left faceoff dot to pull the Panthers within one at 4:30.
‘Just settle down,’ Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. ‘I mean, I thought that we were backing off too much, not being aggressive anymore. … Let them get to their game too much.’
Knies added insurance late in the frame, roofing a backhand on a breakaway to make it 5-3 at 14:00. Bennett cut it to 5-4 at 18:05 with a rising shot from the left circle, but the Panthers could not find one more goal.
Nylander gave Toronto a 1-0 lead 33 seconds into the first period, sneaking a wrist shot short side from the bottom of the right circle past a screened Bobrovsky.
He made it 2-0 at 12:51. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, on the left side, fed Nylander coming into the slot, where the forward briefly stickhandled before getting to the front of the net and lifting it over Bobrovsky’s glove.
‘It was the perfect storm of that’s not the way you want to start when everybody’s got lots of energy and jump, but there’s some tension to it always at the start,’ Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. ‘That was the first period. We didn’t look like ourselves, and then got right at the second and after that had a pretty good push to the third.’
Jones cut the deficit in half with a power-play goal at 16:57, firing a snap shot through traffic that beat Stolarz over his right shoulder to make it 2-1.
Rielly responded 19 seconds later off a 2-on-1 rush, beating Bobrovsky with a wrister stick side to make it 3-1 at 17:16.
Tanev extended it to 4-1 at 7:50 of the second period when his shot from the right point bounced in the low slot and went under Bobrovsky’s blocker.
‘The way we played in the third is more like our game, just fast and more physical,’ Luostarinen said. ‘Obviously, we want to bring that to the next game.’
Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Florida Panthers highlights
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