REINHART THE HERO FOR FLORIDA
Florida briefly limited ticket sales for their series against Toronto to fans with U.S. credit cards, a decision that some Maple Leafs fans thought was designed to keep them from coming to Games 3 and 4.
Panthers 3, Maple Leafs 2 (OT)
The Panthers might be able to keep them from a Game 5 in Toronto, too.
Sam Reinhart scored 3:02 into overtime and the Panthers — who had to fight just to squeak into the playoffs, then stunned Boston in Round 1 — are on the brink of their first conference finals appearance since 1996. Florida topped Toronto 3-2 on Sunday night, taking a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“We’ve had a lot of guys stepping up at big moments,” Reinhart said.
None bigger than he did to win it. Reinhart dumped the puck off the boards behind the net to set up his gamewinner, then headed behind the goal to take a pass back from Anton Lundell. Reinhart twirled his way to the front, tapped the puck home and just like that, Florida had its first 3-0 series lead in 27 years.
“There’s a lot of things going our way,” said Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad, whose team has won six consecutive playoff games for the first time in franchise history. “We’re just trying to take it day by day ... just doing the right things to make us successful.”
Anthony Duclair and Carter Verhaeghe scored for Florida. Sam Lafferty and Erik Gustafsson scored for Toronto, which had plenty of fans there — ticket sales for all opened 24 hours after the online
purchasing window opened last week. They left disappointed; Florida’s left thrilled.
“They’ve been good,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Florida’s fans. “Now they’re excited.”
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.
Game 4 is Wednesday night, with Florida in position for a sweep and a spot in the conference finals against Carolina or New Jersey.
Devils 8, Hurricanes 4: Jack Hughes scored two goals, set up two more and had a near fight as host New Jersey began the task of digging out of another hole with a win over Carolina in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Damon Severson added their first goals of 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.
Michael McLeod capped a three-goal opening period
with a short-handed goal and 19-year-old defenseman Luke Hughes — Jack’s brother — made his playoff debut and picked up two assists. Dawson Mercer had three assists.
Carolina set an NHL record, scoring three shorthanded goal in the game. Jordan Martinook scored on a penalty shot in the second period with the Canes down a man and Jordan Staal and Seth Jarvis scored 50 seconds apart on the same penalty kill in the third.
Kraken 7, Stars 2: Jordan Eberle sparked a five-goal outburst in the second period with his fourth goal of the playoffs, Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves and host Seattle
beat Dallas to take a 2-1 series lead in their Western Conference semifinal.
Eberle was the recipient of an unfortunate bounce, beating Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger at 2:10 of the second period after the puck hit Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen in the face and fell to Eberle’s stick.
That was just the start for Seattle. Alex Wennberg doubled the lead 1:26 after Eberle’s goal; Carson Soucy became Seattle’s 16th different goal scorer this postseason, beating Oettinger fivehole at 6:30; and Matty Beniers made it 4-0 at 8:22.
Seattle’s first four shots of the period beat Oettinger.