Coming out hot, the Panthers led 33-10 in shot attempts and 14-7 in hits after 20 minutes.
“We battled,” said Stenlund, who’s already up to six goals this season. “It wasn’t our best. We had a really good first period and then kind of slowed down. But we fought until the end and got one point.”
In the second period, the Maple Leafs went on the offensive. In addition to pinging a few shots off the post, they came oh-so-close to scoring when a puck squeaked through Anthony Stolarz’s pads and ended up sitting on the goal line before it was cleared out of harm’s way.
At 11:19, Sam Bennett pummeled Max Domi in a quick fight.
Evening the score for the Maple Leafs, Gregor took advantage of a weird bounce, turned on the jets, flew past a defender and fired a shot past Stolarz’s blocker to make it 1-1 at 12:54.
Standing tall in the second, Stolarz made 12 saves, including several high-danger stops.
“It was a highly-competitive game,” said Stolarz, who finished with 31 saves. “It kind of reminded me of the playoffs last year between these two teams. … Neither team wanted to give an inch. You could see the physicality and the chances getting traded back and forth.”
Defensively, the Panthers once again did an outstanding job containing Auston Matthews.
Winner of the 2022 Hart Trophy, Matthews has yet to score in each of his last seven games against the Panthers dating back to last year’s playoffs. When he was on the ice at 5-on-5 in tonight’s game, the Panthers led 25-8 in shot attempts and 11-5 in scoring chances.
Making sure the Panthers got at least a point, the penalty kill stood tall in the third period.
Following a double-minor penalty on the Panthers at 16:56, the team’s killers held down the fort until the Maple Leafs were whistled for too many men with just 5.4 seconds left in regulation.
On the aforementioned penalty, the Maple Leafs skater appeared to trip into the high stick.
Going 6-for-6 tonight, Florida’s penalty kill has gone 20-for-20 over their last five games.
“It was a big kill,” said Stenlund, one of the team’s premier killers. “We needed it at that time. I think the last couple games have been really good. We’ve just got to stay on that path.”
Following a scoreless overtime, Gregor netted the game-winner for Toronto in the shootout.
In the end, the Cats got a point in game where it felt like the deck was stacked against them.
That’s what good teams do.
“I liked our game,” Marice said. “The penalty kill was a weakness for last year, something we had to fix. Our penalty kill was so good tonight, especially on a back-to-back because we’re aggressive with it now and you worry on that second night you won’t have enough step-off. We had a lot of opportunity to practice it tonight and we were really, really good.”
THEY SAID IT
“We’ve had a lot of big kills coming into periods, too. It gives us a little bit of momentum going into a period. They’ve been great. They’re working as a unit, all four guys on the ice. When your PK is confident, it’s fast, it’s heavy and you’re on guys. They’re doing a great job.” – Evan Rodrigues on a hot stretch for the penalty kill
“It’s a lot of fun. You obviously want to come out on top, but like I said before, a lot of credit to Woller. He stood on his head and made a lot of big saves. You love going back and forth, save for save. You’re always trying to outdo the guy at the other end.” – Anthony Stolarz on his goaltending duel with Joseph Woll
CATS STATS
- The Panthers are 9-0-2 when scoring first this season.
- Anton Lundell recorded a team-high six shots on goal.
- The Panthers led 64-36 in shot attempts at 5-on-5.
- Anthony Stolarz made 12 high-danger saves.
- Kevin Stenlund won 66.7% of his faceoffs.
- Aaron Ekblad and Jonah Gadjovich recorded their first points of the season.
WHAT’S NEXT?
There’s one last stop on this trek through Canada.
Hoping to finish their trip with five out of a possible six points after two strong road games, the Panthers will face off against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.
