SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Toronto could not have hoped for anything better. Overtime, and William Nylander winds up with a long clearing pass on his stick and no Florida defensemen in sight. A dream scenario with one of two 50-goal overall scorers in the NHL this season all alone, a chance to win the game.
Sergei Bobrovsky was unfazed.
He simply kicked his right leg into the path of the point-blank shot from the slot, denying Nylander — someone with 51 goals this season when counting the playoffs — to extend the game and realistically, Florida’s chances of moving on in this postseason.
It was one of eight saves Bobrovsky made in overtime — including a breakaway off the stick of Matthew Knies with about 6:15 left in the extra session — and the Panthers rewarded him appropriately. Brad Marchand scored to give Florida a 5-4 victory in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Friday night. Florida now trails the series 2-1, going into Game 4 on home ice Sunday.
“He’s our best player every night,” Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich said of Bobrovsky. “He’s amazing. We lean on him huge.”
And in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Bobrovsky — who led Florida to the Cup final in 2023 and then won the Cup with the Panthers last season, his first title — has been stellar during this three-year run of winning by the Panthers.
His OT totals in that span: 73 shots faced, two goals allowed.
“We’re going to enjoy this win tonight,” Bobrovsky said. “We’re going to reset, we’re going to refocus and then it’s back to work.”
Toronto had a pair of two-goal leads — 2-0 and 3-1 — in Game 3, and has beaten Bobrovsky 13 times so far in this series, all while never trailing by more than one goal at any point.
The confidence, the Maple Leafs said, remains high.
“We earned an opportunity to win in overtime,” said John Tavares, who scored twice for the Maple Leafs in Game 3. “Just didn’t get the break today.”
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