Panthers lose Barkov, then fall in shootout

SUNRISE — The Florida Panthers had it rough Wednesday night.

Not only did Florida lose 3 -2 i n a s h o o t o u t t o t h e Toronto Maple Leafs at BB&T Center, but top-line center Aleksander Barkov left in the second period with an undisclosed injury and did not return to the game.

The Panthers offffered no update on Barkov during the game and how long their

year-old center will miss is not known.

Florida’s fifive- game, Atlantic Division homestand ends tonight against the Montreal Canadiens and Wednesday’s loss makes the Panthers just 1-1-2 in a run at home it hoped would help its playoffff standing.

Instead, the Panthers may go into the New Year closer to last place in the Eastern Conference than a playoffff slot.

Florida came into the night closer to last place (three points in front of New Jersey) in the Eastern Conference than to Boston for third (four points back) in the Atlantic.

Wednesday, the Maple Leafs beat the Panthers for the third time this season albeit by a closer margin than the previous 6-1 rout in Toronto last month.

Florida went into the third period down 2-0 but quickly tied it.

Just 29 seconds into the third, Jonathan Marchessault knocked down a long shot from Keith Yandle, gathered in the puck and put it into the back of the net for his team-leading 11th goal of the season.

A few minutes later, Vinc e n t Tro c h e c k s wooped in and beat four Toronto defensive players to score and make it 2-2 at 2:43 of the period.

Toronto took the fifirst lead on yet another Auston Matthews goal after the Panthers failed to cash in on a pair of early power plays.

Matthews, the top pick in last June’s draft, knocked down a shot from Connor Brown while working inside on Roberto Luongo, reached out and swept the puck past the Florida goalie midway through the fifirst.

The goal was Matthews’ 17th of his rookie season.

Florida almost tied it midway through the second, but Barkov was stopped on by Frederik Andersen on the Panthers’ third power play chance of the night.

Toronto had a goal taken offff the board when James Van Riemsdyk’s wrist shot was waved offff after a Tom Rowe challenge in which video showed Nazem Kadri clearly interfering with Luongo.

The L e a f s got t he goal back moments later on a 4-on-4 chance when William Nylander shot over Luongo’s shoulder.