Six different players scored for the Florida Panthers, who pushed the host Toronto Maple Leafs to the brink of elimination with a 6-1 win in Game 5 on Wednesday.
Jesper Boqvist and Aaron Ekblad each had a goal and an assist and Sam Reinhart and Nate Schmidt had two assists apiece for the Panthers, who lead the Eastern Conference semifinal series 3-2. Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves.
“It’s a belief in our group, our veteran group, that’s been in this situation before,” Ekblad said. “At the end of the day, the job’s not done. There’s still a lot of work to do, to go home, recover and have our best game at home in Game 6.”
Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll allowed five goals on 25 shots before he was replaced by Matt Murray (six saves) in the third period.
Up by one after the first, Florida scored three times in the second period to blow the game open.
“It’s hard to explain it,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “We all have to be better. We just played slow. They were faster on us. They were hungrier. Tonight was not a good game for anybody. We will be better next game. But it’s just disappointing for all of us here.”
Dmitry Kulikov made it 2-0 at 6:08 with a one-timer from the right point that beat Woll over his left shoulder.
Boqvist pushed it to 3-0 at 10:05. Reinhart took a pass from Gustav Forsling into the zone and carried it to the circle before sending a cross-ice feed over to Boqvist, who slid it under Woll’s right skate.
“It was a good opportunity for me,” Boqvist said about playing on the top line with Aleksander Barkov and Reinhart. “Obviously, I enjoyed every second of it. It helps getting to play with two of the best players in the world. I just tried to move my feet, and tonight it worked.”
Niko Mikkola extended it to 4-0 at 14:01 when he took a pass from Anton Lundell at the left point and blasted a slap shot past Woll.
A.J. Greer made it 5-0 at 6:23 of the third period, cleaning up a rebound in front, chasing Woll, and Sam Bennett’s power-play goal at 9:10 increased it to 6-0.
Nicholas Robertson broke the shutout from in the front of the net at 18:54 for the 6-1 final.
It was all Panthers in the first period, building up an 8-2 shot advantage by the midpoint of the frame. By period’s end, they had a 1-0 lead and had outshot Toronto 13-6.
Ekblad opened the scoring at 14:38, firing a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Woll over the shoulder on the far side.
William Nylander had the Maple Leafs’ best chance of the first when he stole the puck inside his own blue line and took off on a breakaway but was denied by Bobrovsky.
“(Bobrovsky is) unbelievable,” Mikkola said. “He gives all five guys on the ice confidence. If we’re going to make a mistake, there’s one guy who can back us up.”
–Field Level Media
