In Toronto, the Panthers’ Sam Reinhart scored off the power play with 60 seconds left in regulation to force extra time with the Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.
Reinhart tied the game, 2-2, and Brandon Montour scored with 1:41 gone ni the extra session for a 3-2 win to Florid.
“I don’t think we enjoyed or liked our first [period], but we kept pushing, obviously, and got the big two points,” Montour said. “Their defenseman made a pretty good play, Barkov didn’t have much room to get it over to me. He’s one of the best in the world and makes big-time plays. I was just trying to get to the net and get open for him and luckily he found me.”
The win pushed the Panthers to within one point of the idle Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Alex Lyon made 38 saves in the Florida win.
“[Lyon] gave us every chance to win the game,” Barkov said. “He stopped a penalty shot, huge couple saves in overtime and throughout the whole game. He’s the type of guy who brings the joy to the locker room and on the ice. You want to play good in front of him, but I still think we could have done a little better job in front of him, but he didn’t need that today.”
The Panthers improved to 37-31-7, and snapped a four-game schneid.
Montour scored off a 2-on-1 break with Alexander Barkov, who fed Montour a pass at the right post for an easy tap in.
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the fist period on a goal from Anton Lundell with 60 seconds gone n the stanza.
Zach Aston-Reese knotted the game, 1-1, at 3:13 of the middle frame for the Maple Leafs.
Toronto dropped to 44-20-10, and added a point to their clearance over the Tampa Bay Lightning for second in the Atlantic Division. The Leafs are six points clear.
Auston Matthews scored at 6:40 of the third to put Toronto in the lad, 2-1, before hte late game heroics of the Panthers.
“Other than the first five minutes or so, I thought we played a pretty good game, but obviously you leave the rink a little bit sour just not getting that extra point there at the end,” Matthews said. “I think there’s plenty of things you can take away from the game, but obviously still not ideal.”
Aston-Reese was stopped on a penalty shot in the second period.
The Penguins have a game in hand on Florida.
Ilya Samsonov made 28 saves in the Maple Leafs loss.
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