{"id":474935,"date":"2026-02-27T11:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/474935\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:28:21","slug":"panthers-return-from-olympics-with-win-over-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/474935\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers return from Olympics with win over Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUNRISE \u2014 The Panthers came out of the Olympic break<\/a> firing on all cylinders.<\/p>\n

After scoring three first-period goals, Florida picked up a much-needed 5-1 win over Toronto at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday night. With the victory, the Panthers moved into a tie with the Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we started well, which we really wanted to do,\u201d veteran forward Brad Marchand said. \u201cAnd at the end of the day, the points are what matters right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marchand, one of the three Panthers who won a silver medal for Team Canada, got Florida on the board early. After deflecting a puck in front of the net, he corralled the loose puck and shot it past Joseph Woll for the Panthers\u2019 first goal of the night.<\/p>\n

Florida did not have to wait long for a second goal. Toronto center Nicolas Roy was called for tripping, and Carter Verhaeghe scored on the power play with a close-range shot that went over Woll\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing we wanted to see the most was that first-period speed,\u201d Florida coach Paul Maurice said. \u201cThat was the best part of our game, offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not even a Toronto power play could stop Florida in its dominant first period. Winger Evan Rodrigues broke up a pass attempt from William Nylander and got a shorthanded breakaway attempt. Rodrigues deked Woll and snuck the puck past him for the Panthers\u2019 third goal of the period.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Had) a lot of time and just kept checking my shoulder and wanted to shoot it, but felt I wasn\u2019t going fast enough,\u201d Rodrigues said. \u201cSo just kind of panicked a little bit, and I tried that move on him a couple years ago in a shootout. Happy it went in this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his team ahead 3-0, Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky took care of the rest. He allowed one goal, on a power play early in the third period. A shot from John Tavares deflected off Gustav Forsling and under the Florida goalie. But otherwise, Bobrovsky performed well and finished the game with 28 saves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough when you sit for a long time,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cHe\u2019s been off for three weeks. You\u2019d almost like a big-shot first period for him to get him back into it, but he\u2019s always been able to do that for us \u2014 sit for a while with not much and then be real sharp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marchand added a second goal late in the third period, scoring with an empty net in the game\u2019s final minutes. Matthew Tkachuk, who was honored in a pregame ceremony for the game\u2019s American Olympians, scored an empty-net goal, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came out strong, scored three goals,\u201d Bobrovsky said. \u201cSo it was a big first period for us and then we played our game. It was a great win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUNRISE \u2014 The Panthers came out of the Olympic break firing on all cylinders. After scoring three first-period…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5106],"tags":[57,5,1180,20,5172,4,43,66,31,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-474935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-florida-panthers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-maple-leafs","12":"tag-mapleleafs","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-toronto","16":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","17":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116142362545535656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}