In Sunrise, William Nylander scored early in the third period to snap a 3-3 tie and help send the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-3 win over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.
Frederik Andersen made 24 saves in the win.
William Nylander had the game-winner for the Maple Leafs – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Leafs rallied from a 1-3 deficit to tie the game in the first period and get the win.
“We’re still in it and we’re still in a really good spot but we need wins,” Aleksander Barkov said after the loss. “We’re going to do everything we can next game. This is the team we are going to have to battle against to make the playoffs.”
Auston Matthews potted his 44th of the season.
“I think we just tried to stay resilient,” Matthews said. “Obviously, you get down early in the first, I think you just try to keep your composure and go out there and take it one shift at a time and just claw our way back. Obviously, it came down to the wire.”
Mark Pysyk, Mike Hoffman and Noel Acciariscored for the Panthers in the opening frame.
“I thought we had good legs, we had the puck a fair bit, we had some stuff happening in their end,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “They got the lead on us, obviously, but I just liked how our team wasn’t fazed by it, we were just talking on the bench that there was a lot of game left and we’ve got to stay with it. We were confident we’d get our chances throughout the game and we did.”
Justin Holl added an empty net goal to seal it.
[WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Panthers highlights]
Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves in the loss.
“We had a good start but unfortunately we blow our lead,” Bobrovsky said. “We gave up easy goals, not necessarily [good] goals. It was a big game for us and them, and unfortunately we were on the wrong side.”
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