Florida takes commanding 3-0 lead on Toronto
Sam Reinhart scored 3 minutes 2 seconds into overtime and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Sunday night to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Reinhart dumped the puck off the boards behind the net to set up his gamewinner, taking a pass back from Anton Lundell and scoring to give host Florida its first 3-0 series lead in 27 years.
Anthony Duclair and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for Florida. Sam Lafferty and Erik Gustafsson scored for Toronto.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 shots for the Panthers. Joseph Woll stopped 18 of the 21 he faced for the Maple Leafs after he relieved starter Ilya Samsonov, who stopped all eight shots he saw before leaving early in the second period with an injury.
Reinhart’s goal for that 3-0 lead means it’s time for the Maple Leafs to spend the next three days hearing about the most dreaded of stats three games into a best-of-seven — the one about how only four clubs have erased such a deficit in hockey history. Toronto is one of those four, coming from 3-0 down to beat Detroit in the 1942 Cup title series.
at New Jersey 8, Carolina 4: Jack Hughes scored two goals, set up two more and had a near fight as the Devils began the task of digging out of another hole with a win over the Hurricanes in Game 3.
Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Damon Severson added their first goals of the playoffs, and Vitek Vanecek returned to the net and made 26 saves in helping New Jersey cut its deficit in the best-of-seven series to 2-1. The eight goals were the most for the Devils in a playoff game since they beat Washington 10-4 on April 22, 1988.
at Seattle 7, Dallas 2: Jordan Eberle sparked a fivegoal outburst in the second period with his fourth goal of the playoffs and Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves as the Kraken took a 2-1 series lead.
Seattle’s first four shots of the period beat Jake Oettinger, who was replaced by Scott Wedgewood. Oettinger has surrendered five goals twice in the series.