Montour scores OT winner as Panthers win 13th straight; beat Leafs

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Brandon Montour scored 2:26 into overtime and the NHL-leading Florida Panthers extended their winning streak to a franchise-record 13 games by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Saturday night.

The winning streak matches the seventh-longest in NHL history and is the league’s longest since Columbus won 16 consecutive games in the 2016-17 season. The victory also marked Florida interim coach Andrew Brunette’s 50th in just 71 games behind the Panthers’ bench.

Claude Giroux had a goal and two assists for Florida, while Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist and Mason Marchment had two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 34 shots.

Justin Hall and Mitch Marner had goals for Toronto. Jack Campbell finished with 32 saves.

The Maple Leafs again held an early lead on the Panthers but failed to hold onto it. On April 5 in their last visit, Toronto led Florida 5-1 in the second period but ended up losing 7-6 in overtime. Saturday night, the Panthers fell behind 2-0 after the first period but were able to come back.

Marner scored his 35th goal of the season on Toronto’s first shot of the night at 3:25 of the first period.

With 2:40 remaining, Holl banked a shot off Florida defenseman Radko Gudas which got past Bobrovsky to make it 2-0.

Florida came back and tied the score heading into the third. Barkov got the Panthers on the board with his 39th at 6:26 of the second.

Later in the period, Giroux picked up his third goal with the Panthers since coming over in a blockbuster trade at the deadline.

That set up an intense third period in which both Bobrovsky and Campbell were sharp throughout. Bobrovsky made 12 saves in the third, Campbell 12.

Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau had one assist putting him two