First Period

This period had a lot of special teams time, with Toronto getting a very early power play.

Brad Marchand dropped Woll with the skate on skate rattrick.

The early power play was not great, but they did get near the net.

Marchand was penalized the second time he did the same thing:

It was a much better power play, but the Panthers PK is legitimately excellent.

And then Marchand did that other thing he does:

Not a dive, I'm getting very tired of everything getting called a dive, but Marchand falls easy. A subtle difference, but it's not like Tim Stützle's Tokyo Drift moves.

The power play lasted about five seconds.

1-0 Florida

The Leafs came on decently strong in the last five minutes, and they got a puck over glass power play from their pressure.

The first unit kept losing the puck to the PK sticks in lanes, but the second unit got it done. Max!

Tie Game!

And other Max with the hit to get it started.

All situations to show the actually good shots in this period. Corsi was 11-9 Florida at five-on-five.

Second Period

The Panthers scored on the first shift. Not good from the skaters, not good from Joe Woll.

2-1 Florida

The Leafs did keep disciplined and focused, and a defensive play turned into a great pass from Pacioretty and a beauty from William Nylander.

Tie Game!

Scott Laughton hit Evan Rodrigues right into the glass from behind. Nate Schmidt jumped in and both went off for roughing. In the most bizarre thing I've seen in a while, Rodrigues, who went to the locker room, was called for embellishment. That's actually offensive to me. That's the kind of penalty that needs to be taken seriously.

Somehow there was no power play. Laughton must have got four minutes.

Pontus Holmberg was hit in what should be interference, but he ended up taking a penalty for a trip on Verhaeghe. The Panthers went to the power play.

The Leafs killed it, sometimes from their asses on the ice after being hauled down.

I can't list all the interference, tripping, holding, etc. going on uncalled. It was out of control. The pace picked up to frantic levels, the crowd chanted "ref you suck" so loud, it was all anyone could hear.

Max Domi on a breakaway couldn't time his skating to his shooting, and looked to pass. Oh, Max.

Max Domi five minutes later taking the pass and it's Oh! Max!

Leafs lead 3-2!

The key in this period, which I'm stealing from sparx99 in the GDT, is that the Leafs took in all that nonsense, ref stupidity, dumb and confusing penalties, non-calls, and just kept playing hockey. Discipline! This is how they are different from the Panthers.

Panthers winning the Corsi battle, losing the goal battle.

Third Period

Good pace to start the third, which I think favours the Leafs.

Chris Tanev driven hard into the boards, but he was half-rotated, so that's not a penalty. Or embellishment.

Anton Lundell tied it up.

Mitch Marner! Restored the lead seconds later.

4-3 Leafs

Twelve minutes is a long time to hold onto a one-goal lead.

Woll with a massive save.

Leafs and Panthers traded zone time, with the Laughton line reliably getting in the offensive zone and staying there. The Domi line (the fourth line for sure in this game) didn't play much, but they were good when they needed to be.

Jake McCabe with several bobbles kept the puck in the Leafs zone for a full minute.

Bobrovsky pulled at 2:55 with a defensive zone faceoff.

Leafs only clear long enough to get a change.

This felt like a game seven.

Matt Knies high-sticked, and the whistle was silent.

Matthews missed the empty net from an awkward angle taking the game to 34 seconds left.

Benoit iced the puck off the faceoff win making it 24 seconds left.

LEAFS WIN!

Great game by the middle six. The top line was busy, busy, busy trying to contain the Barkov line. Joe Woll was solid in the third period. Bodes well for his next game. Which will be in Florida on Friday.

Game CoverageMaple Leafs Playoffs