*Photo from MSN*
Florida leads series 2-0
They've caught fire, and they're humming. Anton Lundell had a goal and an assist, Gustav Forsling scored the game winner, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Thursday in Toronto.
Dating back to the first round, the Panthers have now won their 5th straight game and won both games on the road in Toronto to take a 2-0 series lead, now getting closer to the eastern conference finals. Lundell was the only multi point player for the Panthers.
Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk said that "It's playoffs. We knew they were coming hard. We should have come out better than what we did and that's on us as players, but I think the adjustments we made at the intermission was great and it helps first shift Barkov scores and then we get one the next shift. It's way easier playing with the lead."
Alex Kerfoot gave the Maple Leafs an early 1-0 lead with his second goal of the playoffs, coming 2:20 into the game. At the 5:10 mark of the first, Ryan O'Reilly scored a power play goal to double the lead to 2-0. Lundell then got the Panthers on the board with his first goal of the playoffs, making it 2-1 after one period.
Right away in the second period, the Panthers got the game tied. Aleksander Barkov scored just 19 seconds into the period, tying the game 2-2 with Anthony Duclair getting the assist. Then, 1:06 into the second, Forsling scored the eventual game winning goal, making it 3-2 Panthers quickly with Lundell and Tkachuk assisting.
Barkov said after the game that "We didn't start well that game, they came really hard on us. They played the right way, put a lot of pucks to the net, got a couple of power plays and scored a couple of goals. Lundell's line, that was huge for us. Get us back in the game, scored one and all of a sudden it's a one-goal game."
Getting the start for the Panthers was Sergei Bobrovsky, who got the win to help keep the team hot. Bobrovsky stopped 35 of the 37 shots he saw from the Maple Leafs, which was good for a .946 save percentage in the win.
It was Ilya Samsonov who got the start for the Maple Leafs, getting stuck with the loss in game two. Samsonov turned aside 26 out of the 29 shots on goal from the Panthers, recording a .897 save percentage.
Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said the loss was "Disappointing. Baffling, quite frankly. We didn't even make those mistakes one time in the last series. This one is disappointing. We're rolling early in the game and we just give it back to them. Those are things we haven't done and frankly just cannot do if you are serious about winning."
Up next, the series shifts to Florida with game 3 on Sunday in Florida. The Panthers will look to take a commanding 3-0 series lead, while the Maple Leafs look to get back in the series with a win.
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