Netting his 33rd goal of the season, Auston Matthews, the reigning Hart Trophy winner, opened the scoring for Toronto when he collected a pass from Mitch Marner and fired a long wrist shot past Sergei Bobrovsky, who was screened, to make it 1-0 at 5:05 of the first period.
Later in the period, Matt Murray appeared to rob Tkachuk of a power-play goal with a spectacular glove save. But upon further review by officials, the puck had actually crossed the line while inside Murray's glove, so Tkachuk's goal counted and made it 1-1 at 14:25.
Pushing his goal streak to a career-high six games, Tkachuk's streak is the second-longest in franchise history, trailing on the seven-game streak Pavel Bure strung together in 2000-01.
Regaining the lead for the Maple Leafs after creating some chaos around Florida's crease, William Nylander scored from just outside the blue paint to make it 2-1 at 1:20 of the second period. Just 1:37 later, Matthews scored his second of the game to make it 3-1 at 2:57.
"They were harder net-front," head coach Paul Maurice said. "We didn't spend enough heavy time there. There were rebounds to be had that we didn't get to. Both faceoff goals were just a battle net-front that we lost, and that would be the difference in the game."
After Josh Mahura stepped up to make a great play and keep the puck in the zone, Aleksander Barkov sent the rubber straight to Nick Cousins, who then beat Murray with a silky-smooth backhand shot while dancing through the slot to slice Florida's deficit to 3-2 at 11:43.
But with the Maple Leafs on a 5-on-3 power play, Michael Bunting pushed right back when he took a pass from John Tavares and fired a shot through Bobrovsky's five-hole to make it 4-2. at 18:21.
Putting the game essentially out of reach for the Panthers in the third period, Alex Kerfoot scored to extend Toronto's advantage to 5-2 at 14:23. After the Panthers pulled their goaltender for a 6-on-4 advantage on the power play, Mitch Marner then cashed in on the empty net to make it 6-2.
"We know they have a lot of offensive power," Barkov said. "They don't need much to create chances. We didn't play that well in the defensive zone. We gave them too many chances. Their power play is one of the best in the league, so you can't give them that."
