SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 23 shots for his fifth career playoff shutout, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett scored and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 on Sunday night in Game 4 to even the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Verhaeghe scored on a power play in the first period, Bennett added the insurance score with 7:50 left and Bobrovsky did the rest. He’s the first goalie with two shutouts this year in the playoffs.
Joseph Woll stopped 35 shots for the Maple Leafs, who took a 2-0 series lead with a pair of home wins and now return there for Game 5 on Wednesday night with the series tied.
Verhaeghe’s goal came on Florida’s fourth power play of the first period. Matthew Tkachuk, along the left-wing boards, threaded a pass through the slot and past two defenders onto the waiting stick of Verhaeghe — who slammed a one-timer past Woll.
It was part of a spree of shots early for Florida. The Panthers took 21 of the game’s first 26 shots on net, simply controlling play for long stretches and keeping all the action in front of Woll. He held firm, time and again, keeping Toronto in it.
STARS 5, JETS 2
DALLAS (AP) — Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists, including on the tiebreaking goal by Alexander Petrovic that was finally confirmed after a lengthy review as Dallas beat Winnipeg to take lead in the second-round Western Conference series.
Officials reviewed Petrovic’s goal for well over five minutes and while determining there was a kicking motion, the goal was good after the puck went off goalie Connor Hellebuyck’s stick and into the net with 16:09 left. That all came off the rebound of the initial a shot by Rantanen, who 49 seconds after play resumed scored his ninth goal of the playoffs — all coming in the last six games.
Game 4 is Tuesday night in Dallas.
Roope Hintz had a goal and an assist for the Stars, and Wyatt Johnston added a late goal. Sam Steel and Mikael Granlund each had two assists.
Rantanen, who has 18 points this postseason, had the primary assist on a power-play goal by Hintz only 2:27 in for a 1-0 lead. When Dallas scored again late in the first period for a 2-1 lead, Rantanen was on the ice for defenseman Thomas Harley’s goal, but the assists went to Granlund and Steel.
That ended Rantanen’s NHL playoffs-record streak of consecutive goals involved in at 13 in a row for the Stars since Game 5 of their first-round series against Colorado.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 23 shots. Hellebuyck, the odds-on favorite to win his third Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goalie, and also among three finalists for the Hart Trophy that goes to the MVP of the NHL regular season, dropped to 0-4 in road games this postseason after giving up the five goals on 26 shots.
