'Credit to Florida': Panthers stun Maple Leafs in Game 1 - ESPN

TORONTO — Sergei Bobrovsky made 34 saves, Matthew Tkachuk had three assists and the Florida Panthers survived a squandered two-goal lead to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Tuesday night in opening game of their second-round playoff series.

Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist, and Carter Verhaeghe and Nick Cousins also scored for Florida. Aleksander Barkov had two assists as the Panthers — who overcame a 3-1 series deficit in Round 1 — won their fourth consecutive game.

Matthew Knies posted his first NHL goal, and Michael Bunting also scored for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov stopped 24 shots.

Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday.

The Panthers stunned the record-setting Boston Bruins with three straight victories, including an overtime win in Game 7 on Sunday, and kept up the momentum against another Original Six team.

Tkachuk — who after the morning skate said, «I guess the prize for knocking off the best team in the league is getting the second-best team in the league now» — was right in the middle of the Panthers' push yet again. He assisted on Brandon Montour's third-period goal, which concluded the scoring.

«Credit to Florida,» Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. «They played a great game today. But it's a long series, just like the last one we played.»

The Maple Leafs ended a generation of misery Saturday when John Tavares scored in overtime of Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Lightning as Toronto advanced in the postseason for the first time since 2004. Two days later, they found themselves trailing 1-0 in a series for the second time this spring.

«I thought we made some mistakes here tonight that we didn't necessarily make in our last series,» Keefe said.

Tied at 2 late in the second period with the Maple Leafs pushing, the