Panthers tie it late in 3rd, defeat Maple Leafs in OT to end 4-game slide

TORONTO -- Brandon Montour scored at 1:41 of overtime, and the Florida Panthers rallied for a 3-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

Montour one-timed a pass from Aleksander Barkov on a 2-on-1 after Sam Reinhart tied it at 19:00 of the third period.
"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."

Reinhart tied it 2-2 when he deflected a shot in the slot from Aaron Ekblad, who shot from the top of the left face-off circle on the power play after the Panthers had pulled goalie Alex Lyon for the 6-on-4 advantage.
Anton Lundell scored, and Lyon made 38 saves for his first win since Jan. 28 for Florida (37-31-7), which had lost four in a row.
The Panthers moved within one point of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have one game in hand, for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Lyon was recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on March 19.
"[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."

Auston Matthews and Zach Aston-Reese scored, and Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves for the Maple Leafs (44-20-10), who lead the Tampa Bay Lightning by six points, with one game in hand, for second in the Atlantic Division.
"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."
Florida was without goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who started 16 of the previous 17 games, due to a non-COVID illness. Coach Paul Maurice said Bobrovsky was sent earlier Wednesday to Montreal, where the Panthers will face the Canadiens on Thursday. He will be reevaluated prior to the game.
Lyon kept it tied 2-2 when he outwaited Matthews, who cut to the net at 1:18 of overtime, then made a glove save on Matthews at 1:21 after he came out from behind the net.
"I don't know what happened on the one I took across, I kind of mishandled it at the last second, and then he made a nice save on the second try," Matthews said. "But I'll take those any chance I can get, and in my mind, those are going in more times than not."
Lyon said he reviewed footage from the Panthers' 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs on March 23 with Bobrovsky prior to the game, which he said helped him anticipate what Matthews might do on the second chance.
"'Bob' and I looked at that, he scored on 'Bob' like that in Florida last week, and so we talked about that a lot, how he's so good at moving to the net front quickly, coming high and then going low glove," Lyon said. "To me, it's one of his signature moves, so I just tried to anticipate it and obviously it worked out."

Matthews gave Toronto a 2-1 lead at 6:40 of the third period when he one-timed a pass from Mitchell Marner at the top of the left face-off circle. The goal, his ninth in his past 11 games, extended his point streak to seven (six goals, five assists).
Florida went up 1-0 at 1:00 of the first period when Lundell took a pass from Eetu Luostarinen in the slot and shot past Samsonov's blocker. Luostarinen got to a loose puck to set up Lundell after Jake McCabe's pass to John Tavares hit him in the skates leading to the turnover.
Aston-Reese tied it 1-1 at 3:13 of the second period when he deflected TJ Brodie's shot from the point.
The Maple Leafs thought they went up by a goal at 3:47 when Calle Jarnkrok scored after taking a pass from Matthews on a 2-on-1, but the Panthers successfully challenged that Matthews was offside.
Aston-Reese was awarded a penalty shot at 11:33 after being slashed by Montour on a breakaway, but Lyon made the save.
NOTES: Montour's goal gave him 63 points, passing Keith Yandle (62 in 2018-19) for the most points by a defenseman in Florida history, and his fifth game-winning goal passed Ekblad for the most in a season by a Panthers defenseman. … Marner extended his point streak to 11 games (six goals, 12 assists). … Matthews' 296th goal tied Frank Mahovlich and George Armstrong for sixth in Maple Leafs history.