The Toronto Maple Leafs came up big when their season was on the line Friday night.
Joseph Woll stopped all 22 shots he faced and Auston Matthews broke a scoreless tie 6:20 into the third period as the Maple Leafs pushed their Eastern Conference Second Round series to a seventh game with a 2-0 victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 6.
Two nights after being run out of their own building in a 6-1 loss, the Maple Leafs rebounded with the kind of grit and desperation they had to have to stay alive. They were defensively responsible, matched Florida’s physicality and kept the Panthers from setting up shop in front of the crease.
Woll played with confidence, didn’t allow rebounds and became the first Toronto goaltender to have a shutout in an elimination game since Curtis Joseph in Game 5 of the 2002 conference final.
Matthews broke the scoreless tie after the Panthers bungled a breakout, with Aaron Ekblad unable to handle a pass from defense partner Gustav Forsling. The puck came out of the zone, where Mitchell Marner tipped it to an onrushing Matthews. He got to the right circle and took a wrist shot that appeared to tick off Forsling’s stick before going through Sergei Bobrovsky’s five-hole.
Max Pacioretty added an insurance goal at 14:37, beating everyone to the front of the net and converting a terrific pass from Bobby McMann with a backhander over Bobrovsky’s glove.
“We battled hard all three periods,” Matthews told Sportsnet. “It took until midway through the third period to break through, but everybody played hard. Everybody competed. We played with good structure, played simple. I thought we skated hard, skated well, forechecked well.
“We were able to break through late and played solid defense.”
Maple Leafs force Game 7 with 2-0 victory over Panthers
The first two periods were exciting only because of what was at stake. The two teams spent the opening 40 minutes alternating dominant stretches without scoring and often without even getting a shot on goal.
Toronto outshot Florida 7-2 and had the better of the play in the first period but couldn’t get a puck past Bobrovsky despite a 9-0 edge in high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Panthers had as many shots on goal as they did power plays – largely because the Maple Leafs had 10 blocked shots. Toronto also matched Florida’s physicality in the first period; each team had 16 hits. Matthew Knies had the Maple Leafs best chance but couldn’t lift his backhander over Bobrovsky’s left pad.
The second period belonged to Florida, which outshot Toronto 10-0 in the first 10 minutes and dominated play. But like the Maple Leafs in the first period, controlling most of the action didn’t yield anything on the scoreboard. None of the three power plays – two for Toronto, one for Florida – yielded anything.
Neither team did much of anything offensively in the third period until Matthews’ goal, which came on Toronto’s first shot. Toronto ended up with just four shots in the final period but scored on two of them.
Florida had 81 shot attempts to 42 for Toronto, but got less than 30 percent of them on net.
“I thought we were late getting it off our stick,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I thought we were waving the gun a lot, but didn’t want to pull the trigger on a few.”
Toronto’s penalty-killers were magnificent, holding Florida scoreless on four power plays and keeping the Panthers shotless on the last three.
The Panthers bid to repeat as Stanley Cup champions now comes down to winning Game 7 at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday night against a Toronto team that’s trying to advance as far as the conference final for the first time since 2002. The Maple Leafs haven’t made the Final since 1967, the last time they won the Stanley Cup.
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3 takeaways after Toronto Maple Leafs defeat Florida Panthers 2-0 in Game 6
1. Matthews comes through
Toronto’s captain picked the right time to score his first goal of this series – and his first goal in 11 playoff games against the Panthers.
Matthews actually missed a couple of minutes late in the second period after he was accidentally clipped with a high stick on a face-off. But he was back in time to score his third goal of the postseason.
It was also his first career goal in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and his third in an elimination game. Two of those three have been game-winners – the only players in Maple Leafs history with more are Charlie Conacher (4) and Lanny McDonald (3).
The pressure was mounting on Matthews, last season’s Rocket Richard Trophy winner with 69 goals, as the series went on. On this night, he delivered when his team needed him most.
“It feels good. It feels good,” Matthews said of his goal. “Obviously, the job’s not done yet. It’s a gutsy win to keep our season alive, but we’ve got one more job to finish.”
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2. Woll stands tall in goal
The other Toronto hero was the same goalie who was pulled in the third period of Game 5 but rebounded with a flawless effort on a night when there was no margin for error.
It wasn’t like Woll had to make a bunch of highlight-reel saves. But he tracked the puck well, gave up few rebounds and played with poise. He was at his most composed when the Leafs needed him to be.
That was especially true in the first half of the second period, when Florida had the first 10 shots and made a big push. But he never looked fazed and got plenty of help from his teammates, who blocked 31 shots.
3. Getting ready for Game 7
The Panthers had all the momentum coming into Game 6 after shutting out the Maple Leafs in Game 4 and embarrassing them 6-1 in Game 5. But it was apparent from puck drop that this night was going to be different Not only were the Maple Leafs revved up and ready to play, but the Panthers looked a bit out of synch.
Now both teams face a win-or-go-home game, this time with a full house at Scotiabank Arena that’s sure to be roaring from the opening face-off. History is not with the Maple Leafs: Maurice is 5-0 in Game 7s, including the final game of last season’s Stanley Cup Final. Overall, the Panthers are 3-1 in Game 7 — including 2-0 on the road — and the Maple Leafs have lost each of their past six Game 7s.
The Maple Leafs hope that Knies, one of their best forwards in the series, will be at full strength. After taking a reverse hit from Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola in the first period, Knies appeared in serious discomfort in the second period, saw limited ice time and wasn’t his usual self when he did play. Knies has been a key contributor during the playoffs with five goals and seven points in 12 games — including two goals and four points against the Panthers.
Florida must make some adjustments to its power play, which managed just one shot in four opportunities. The most damaging was the last one, when Brandon Carlo was called for hooking less than three minutes after Matthews’ goal. The Panthers couldn’t even get set up in the offensive zone.
“Their penalty kill was really good,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “They were blocking a lot of shots. Our power play has to be a lot better, and that’s mainly on us five that play the majority of it. We’re just pretty slow making plays, not making them when they’re there. Just some decisions that we don’t normally make. We’ve just got to get back to the basics.”
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