Panthers edge out Toronto, 3-1 Bobrovsky makes 29 saves

In Sunrise, Sergei Bobrovsky made 29 saves  in a 3-1 win for the Florida Panthers over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.“His past two games was elite-level goaltending,’’ Florida coach Paul Maurice said of Bobrovsky, who made 31 saves in a 4-3 win against the New Jersey Devils on Monday. “For a veteran goaltender, he realized he needed to step up. Not that he wasn’t good, but to beat this team, you have to be better than average.”

The Panthers grabbed a 1-0 lead at 17:08 of the opening frame on a goal from Kevin Stenlund .

“We will keep working on it and see how it goes in a new season,” Stenlund said. “I saw traffic on net and said, ‘Shoot!’ It went in. I am always trying to work on my game, build every day and get some more offense as it goes along. Today was a good day.”

With just seven seconds left in the first, Oliver Ekman-Larsson  wristed a shot home for a 2-0 lead to Florida entering the second period.

Mitchell Marner was the lone striker for the Maple Leafs. His goal came off the power play in the 12th minute of the middle frame to trim the Leafs deficit to 2-1.

“I liked a lot about our game. That was probably the best game we have played in as far as the quality of the game,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It was tight, fast and competitive. I thought our guys did a good job defensively and did not give up too much. Their goals came from a distance. We didn’t generate enough offense. Don’t score, you don’t win, and that’s the way it goes.”

Sam Reinhart  added a shorthanded, empty-net  goal with one tic left on the game clock in the third for the 3-1 final.

Ilya Samsonov made 21 saves in the Leafs loss.

“The results were not too great today, but I felt my game was a little bit better,’’ Samsonov said. “I was moving better; they had a couple good shots against us. We don’t have time for crying because there are too many games left on this road trip (four). The sun is up again tomorrow, and we need to think about this game a little bit today and forget about it tomorrow.”