RECAP: Bobrovsky stands tall again as Panthers take 2-0 series lead

TORONTO -- Is it possible that the hunted have become the hunters?

Taking a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Second Round, the Florida Panthers rode another stellar performance from Sergei Bobrovsky to a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

Finishing with 35 saves, Bobrovsky stopped all 22 shots he faced after the first period.

"I think you need your goaltender to win you a game every series, and he did that tonight," Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said. "He built from it. I don't think it was easy for him at the start. Certainly the way we played in front of him for the first 10 minutes made it challenging. Then he built. You get behind the bench some nights and you get a feel for your goaltender, and you just go, 'Oh man, he's just not getting beat again.' That's what he gave our team."

After going down early in Game 1, the Maple Leafs struck first in Game 2 when Alex Kerfoot fired a rebound past Bobrovsky to make it 1-0 at 2:20 of the first period. On the power play soon after, Ryan O'Reilly buried a one-timer from the right circle to make it 2-0 at 5:10.

With the third line applying a ton of pressure in the offensive zone, the Panthers got on the board and cut their deficit in half when Anton Lundell took a sweet behind-the-net dish from Sam Reinhart and beat Ilya Samsonov with a snap shot from in front to make it 2-1 at 11:13.

"We've been able to get a lot of chances, and the last games we've been able to get some goals," Lundell said of his line, which was arguably the most-effective trio for the Panthers in Game 2 "It feels good. We just need to keep going. We want more. We want more all the time."

Tying the game up just 19 seconds into the second period, Anthony Duclair swiped the puck in the neutral zone before dishing the biscuit to Aleksander Barkov. Carrying the puck to the top of the left circle, the captain then fired a laser of a shot past Samsonov to bring the score to 2-2.

After some more great forechecking from Eetu Luostarinen, the Panthers suddenly took the lead when Matthew Tkachuk set up Gustav Forsling for a goal with a cross-ice feed to make it 3-2 at 1:06. Taking the lead in the blink of an eye, Florida's goals came within a span of 47 seconds.

Additionally, Barkov's goal was the fastest ever to start a period in the playoffs in franchise history.

From that point on, it was all Bobrovsky. Making nine high-danger saves in the win, none were bigger than when he lunged forward to deny Auston Matthews -- the NHL's MVP in 2022 -- on a lethal look from the slot on the power play to keep Florida's lead intact in the second period.

"The atmosphere is good in the locker room, but it's one game at a time, one shift at a time," said Bobrovsky, who sits at 5-1 in the playoffs. "We don't think too much about what happened in the past. It was a quick turnaround after Game 7. … It's just a fun road and great hockey."

With the Panthers full of confidence, the series will now shift to Sunrise for Games 3 and 4.

"It feels like we proved the last series against Boston that we're a good team," Lundell said. "We have the confidence. … Everyone knows it's tight games. It's two good teams. It's never over. We saw that in the last series. We have a couple days to rest and then we go again."

CATS QUOTES

"Playing in straight lines, finishing hits, having good sticks. We're not just running around like animals right now. We're just trying to play to our identity." - Matthew Tkachuk on Florida's physicality

"For me, it's perspective. That's five games in nine nights of as an intense and emotional pressure you can put on a hockey team. This isn't the Jersey-Rangers series where the two teams are 11 miles apart. We've been on an airplane for a while. We didn't think we had much in our legs tonight, so it was just about character. It was just about fighting through it and battling the hard things that happen. Some of that's self-inflicted. We beat it up a little bit and we got above it a couple of times and missed some routes and missed some checks. It wasn't a perfect game for us by any means, but I didn't expect that from my team. I didn't expect them to be perfect tonight. I just wanted them to stay in the fight, and that's what they did." - Paul Maurice on the resilience his players showed in Game 2

"Game 6 there was unbelievable. I'm really excited to go back home and hear the loud Cats fans there." - Anton Lundell on the series shifting back to South Florida

CATS NOTES

• The Panthers have set a new franchise record with five straight playoff wins.

• Matthew Tkachuk extended his playoff point streak to six games.

• Aleksander Barkov extended his playoff point streak to five games.

• Anton Lundell's five points in this year's playoffs are the third-most by a player 21 years or younger in franchise history.

• Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 28 of 29 shots at even strength.

• Sam Bennett dished out a team-high 10 hits.

• After being hit in the face with a puck, Josh Mahura returned and finished the game.

• The Panthers own a 5-1 record on the road in this year's playoffs.

WHAT'S NEXT?

FLA Live Arena is the place to be this weekend!

After taking the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Toronto, the Panthers will return home to host the Maple Leafs for two games, starting with Game 3 on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET.

For tickets, click Video: FLA@TOR, Gm2: Lundell puts the Panthers on the board.