In Sunrise Tuesday, the Florida Panthers held a 2-0 lead before the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied to force extra time.
Jared McCann rescued the Panthers with an overtime strike to defeat the Leafs, 3-2.
Roberto Luongo made 37 saves to take the win for Florida who improved to 29-25-6.
“I don’t think it was our best game by any means, but the good thing is we’re finding ways to win. We’ve got to clean some stuff up I think; that’s not the type of hockey we want to be playing, but when it comes down to the wire we find ways to win and good teams do that,” Luongo said after the win.
Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau staked the Panthers to the 2-0 lead.
“It is huge to win some games right now, so it’s always nice to find ways to win. I think we’ve been winning at the end of the game, three games now,” Huberdeau said. “We just have to build off of it and I think it gives confidence to our group. We need these points, so we have to battle every game to get these points.”
McCann scored on a breakaway late in the extra session.
“The reason (McCann) was out there in overtime, and I picked him over a lot of guys, was that I thought he had a game,” Panthers head coach Bob Boughner said. “I thought he played one of his strongest games, 200-foot game. He deserved to be out there.”
Dominic Moore and Zach Hyman scored the Leafs goals to get them even in the middle frame.
“I thought both goalies were good, every time we play (Luongo), he seems to be good,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought he was getting old, but he’s just good. I thought we had the puck lots and in control. We got down 2-0 and battled our way back on a back-to-back night. In the end, you have to give them credit.
“I look at the two games (a 4-3 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday), and we probably deserved two points of the four we got and that’s what we got.”
[WATCH:Â All Maple Leafs vs. Panthers highlights]
Curtis McElhinney made 28 saves in taking the loss.
“It’s a tough game with the back-to-back situations and a desperate hockey team over there. I thought we played a pretty good game overall. The 3-on-3, it’s just one of those things, you’re waiting for the right break and they took advantage of it tonight and capitalized,” McElhinney said after the loss.
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