Leafs on brink after Panthers win in OT
Sam Reinhart scored 3:02 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 game-winner, taking a pass back from Anton Lundell and scoring to give Florida its first 3-0 series lead in 27 years.
Anthony Duclair and Carter Verhaeghe 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.
Game 4 is Wednesday night.
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.
Woll, replacing Samsonov, came in cold to face the Florida power play. Woll stopped the first shot he faced, but Duclair scored with 1 second left on the man advantage to tie the game at 1.
Toronto led, 1-0 and 2-1, only to see Florida come back with the tying goal each time.
Lafferty one-timed a pass from David Kampf home just 2:26 into the contest to finish off a 2-on-1 and open the scoring.
Duclair tied it on the power play shortly after Samsonov departed, only to see Toronto reclaim the lead when Gustafsson’s wrister caromed in off Marc Staal’s stick midway through the second. Verhaeghe tied it 5 minutes later and to the third they went, tied at 2-2.
Devils top Hurricanes
Jack Hughes scored two goals, set up two more and had a near fight as the New Jersey Devils began the task of digging out of another hole with a 8-4 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Newark.
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.
Michael McLeod capped a three-goal opening period with a shorthanded goal and 19-yearold 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 goals 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. Sebastian Aho had the other goal for Carolina.