In Sunrise, the Toronto Maple Leafs had only one option left to them on Wednesday night.
They needed a win or face the off season.
Joseph Woll made 24 saves in his first career NHL post season for the Maple Leafs in a 2-1 win in Game 4 over the Panthers.
“Yeah, it was a pretty awesome game to get put into and any opportunity to get with this team is pretty special,” Woll said. “It was awesome for me to see how hard we played tonight, and guys blocking shots (21) and put it all on the line was pretty awesome.”
The victory forces a Game 5 in Toronto on Thursday night.
“I thought from an effort standpoint, I thought it was our best effort of the season,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “You saw all the way through from start to finish, there was no real letup. Obviously, it’s a very close game but our competitiveness defensively, and urgency defensively, was the best it’s been all year. It was an unbelievable job by our guys here tonight.”
After a scoreless first period, William Nylander scored off the power play at 3:29Â of the middle frame to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.
The game stayed there until Mitchell Marner scored midway through the third period for a 20 advantage to the Leafs.
“Just a complete effort,” Marner said. “We wanted to just take it shift by shift for a full 60 [minutes], and I thought we did a great job.”
Sam Reinhart scored two minutes later, off the power play, to trim the deficit to 2-1 for the Panthers.
“I think we didn’t quite establish our offensive game enough, and our forecheck leads to that,” Reinhart said. “I think we were a little loose through the neutral zone and that led to less [offensive] zone time, less opportunities for us tonight.”
But that was as close as they could get get.
“I thought it was a tremendous third period for us in a lot of ways with the season on the line,” Keefe said. “And the guys just dug in and did what they needed to do to get the win. Loved that we got the second goal, of course, and how we got it. And then loved the response when they made it 2-1. No panic. Just went out we finished the job.”
It was the fist loss in seven games for the Panthers.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves in the Florida loss.
“It’s a little unlucky bounce, but it is what it is,” Bobrovsky said. “I thought we had a good game. We competed, we fought, we played a solid defensive game. They’re a good team as well, so that’s the score tonight.”
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