SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The night’s last ricochet became a goal for Brad Marchand. It also became the biggest score of Florida’s season.
Marchand scored on a deflected shot at 15:27 of overtime and the Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night, cutting their deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 2-1.
“We just competed the way that we know that we can,” Marchand said.
Marchand’s shot hit Toronto’s Morgan Rielly and sailed over goalie Joseph Woll. It was one of four goals — two for each team — that struck an opposing player en route to the net.
Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Jonah Gadjovich scored for Florida, which got 27 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Evan Rodrigues had two assists for the Panthers, who are 13-2 in their last 15 playoff overtime games.
John Tavares scored twice, while Matthew Knies and Rielly also had goals for the Maple Leafs. Woll stopped 32 shots. Game 4 is in Sunrise on Sunday night.
“Overtime, we had our opportunities,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “It’s a bounce. That’s what happens in overtime a lot of times.”
Florida erased 2-0 and 3-1 deficits, a rarity against Toronto this season.
— The Leafs were 30-3-0 when leading after the first period, including playoffs, the second-best record in the league.
— They were 38-8-2 when scoring first, the league’s third-best record.
— They had blown only 11 leads all season, none in the playoffs.
— They were 44-3-1 in games where they led by two goals or more.