Following a convincing road win, the Florida Panthers look to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference Final on Friday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Though it wasn’t an elimination game, Game 5 between the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs had the makings of a must-win game, as one team was going to move within a win of the Eastern Conference Final.
Only one team seemed to show up.
The Panthers were all over the Maple Leafs from the get-go, swarming the home side in the opening 20 minutes. The defending Stanley Cup champions outshot the Leafs 13-6 in the first period, with Aaron Ekblad scoring his second goal of the playoffs.
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Even though Toronto only trailed by one heading into the first intermission, it seemed Ekblad’s tally took the life out of them. That was noticeable in period two, when the Leafs’ back end made mistake after mistake, with a lot of credit going to the Panthers’ relentless forecheck. Goals by fellow defenseman Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola, along with the fresh Jesper Boqvist, helped give Florida a four-goal lead after 40 minutes, spurring the boo-birds from the crowd at Scotiabank Arena.
At that point, all that was left was the final buzzer. While there were plenty of pleasantries traded between the divisional rivals in the third, Toronto never had a sniff of a comeback, as Nick Robertson’s first goal of the postseason came in garbage time. A.J. Greer and Sam Bennett capped off a convincing effort, as the Panthers skated away with a 6-1 win, taking a 3-2 lead in the series.
The Panthers are trying to become the first team to make it to the Eastern Final since the Tampa Bay Lightning made it to three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals from 2020 to 2022.
ATLANTIC DIVISION FINAL
(1) Toronto Maple Leafs vs. (3) Florida Panthers (Panthers lead, 3-2)
When: Friday, May 16
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Where: Amerant Bank Arena (Sunrise, Fla.)
Channel: TNT, truTV