Florida Panthers forward Sam Reinhart (13) celebrates scoring the game tying goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at Scotiabank Arena, Wednesday, March 29.John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
The Florida Panthers may have saved their season on Wednesday night with a dramatic 3-2 victory in overtime over the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
Brandon Montour scored the winner with 3:38 remaining in overtime as the Panthers, who had lost four in a row, pulled within one point of Pittsburgh in the race for the second wildcard position in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
Sam Reinhart had tied the game at 2-2 for Florida with one minute left in regulation time with its postseason hopes hanging in the balance. The goal came on a power play with Mark Giordano in the penalty box for hooking.
Alex Lyon, a 30-year-old backup, stopped 38 of 40 shots for the Panthers in just his fourth win of the season. Lyon has spent most of the last seven years in the American Hockey League.
He was inserted into the lineup because starter Sergei Bobrovsky is tired from a heavy recent workload and is also battling a minor illness.
He will likely return to action on Thursday when Florida visits the Canadiens in Montreal.
Florida escaped despite getting called for six penalties, one that resulted in a Toronto penalty shot and also allowed a goal on a break-away that was nullified by an offsides penalty.
The latter occurred only 31 seconds after Zack Aston-Reece had tied the game for Toronto at 1-1 when he deflected a shot by T.J. Brodie past Lyon. Calle Jarnkrok netted the puck 31 seconds later but Auston Matthews was clearly offsides.
By then Florida coach Paul Maurice had seen enough and was standing on the bench and shouting at his players.
“If I could have yelled louder I would have,” Maurice said, allowing that it was an attempt by him to get his struggling team’s attention. “It was about all I had at the time.
“For a coach it was a cleansing exercise. It was nice to share my feelings.”
It took the Panthers just 60 seconds to get on the board with Anton Lundell, left wide open, whistled a wrist shot past Ilya Samsonov.
Toronto dominated for most of the first period but could not get a puck beyond Lyon. It had a 14-7 lead in shots after 20 minutes.
It was a chippy affair in the early going with Florida’s hulking Radko Gudas and Wayne Simmonds each assessed roughing penalties in a dustup in front of the Toronto net.
Later, Matthew Tkachuk and Justin Holl had a shoving match and Gudas exchanged pleasantries with Luke Schenn.
Aston Reece tied it at 1-1 three minutes and 13 seconds into the second period with Brodie and Simmonds awarded assists.
It was only the second point of the season for the latter who has been limited to playing in 16 games.
Auston Matthews put Toronto ahead 2-1 with 13:20 left to go in the third period. It was his team-leading 37th goal and came on an assist by Mitch Marner. With it Marner extended his points streak to 11 games and is now just five points shy of reaching 100 for the first time in his career.
Toronto clinched a postseason berth on Monday when the Panthers lost in Ottawa to the Senators but are still trying to lock down home-ice advantage over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.
The Maple Leafs play at Ottawa on Saturday and are home again on Sunday against Detroit.
With its situation growing more and more perilous, Florida rallied and pulled off the stunning victory.
First it was Reinhart on a power play with Lyon pulled from the net for an extra attacker. Then it was Montour, a defenceman who now has 14 goals and 49 assists in 73 games.
“It is a tough league,” Montour said. “Everyone can beat everyone. But everyone knows we are good enough to get to the playoffs.”
Most of the postgame plaudits were reserved for Lyon.
“He was huge for us,” Aleksander Barkov, the Panthers captain, said. “We needed a win to get our confidence going. We are still pushing and we are still in it.”
Lyon, who entered the game with a 3-3-1 record and .881 save percentage, was nonplused.
“My job is to stay ready,” he said. “Sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn’t. I try not to get too worked up anymore.”
He outdueled Samsonov on a night where the latter was solid. He stopped 26 of 29 shots in his first start since his wife gave birth to a baby boy last week
Lyon said the Panthers, who were on the verge of disaster, are still battling.
“We all know what the standings look like,” he said. “What do we have to lose? Why played scared?”