Based on their most recent games, no lead should be safe when the Florida Panthers visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.
Adding to the drama, the teams are vying for first place in the Atlantic Division. Florida leads with 83 points through 65 games and Toronto ranks second with 81 points in 64 games.
As for protecting leads, both teams are coming off games in which they squandered multi-goal advantages.
The Panthers took a 2-0 lead Tuesday into the third period of their 3-2 road loss to the Boston Bruins, which ended their six-game winning streak.
The Maple Leafs were more fortunate Monday against the Utah Hockey Club. They blew a 3-0 lead, but won 4-3 in a shootout to salvage one win from their three-game road trip.
Toronto also failed to hold a 4-3 lead in the third period Saturday, resulting in a 7-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
The Utah game completed a stretch of 11 of 13 games on the road for the Maple Leafs.
“We got off to a great start,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “Our first period was really good, made a couple of mistakes in the second. Right now, we’re fighting through some adversity and the guys came through in the third, did a good job and ended up winning the shootout.”
Mitchell Marner scored the decisive goal in the shootout to end Toronto’s three-game losing streak.
“We did what we had to do,” Berube said. “This has been a long stretch for us on the road. We’re 9-3-1 in this stretch, which is very good, so credit to our guys. They’re battling and they had the battle tonight.”
Marner had an assist to extend his points streak to seven games (five goals, four assists), while William Nylander scored a goal to stretch his points streak to six games (three goals, five assists).
“I think we started the game pretty well and then we let them back in the game,” Nylander said. “I thought we did a good job battling. And I mean, especially in (overtime), there was a long shift there. But (goaltender Joseph) Woll played great and kept us in the game for the most part.”
Toronto opens a four-game homestand against the Panthers.
In Boston, Florida played its first game without defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who was suspended 20 games for failing a random drug test.
Seth Jones, acquired in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on March 1, is expected to play a key role in Ekblad’s absence.
(Ekblad) has been on the top of our No. 1 power-play unit, so Seth will step into that,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He takes more penalty-kill time than Seth has, but that’s a place that we wanted Seth to step into. We wanted him to kill more penalties in the last 20 games to get used to what we do.”
The Panthers will be playing the second of six in a row on the road Thursday.
“We’ve got a tough one in Toronto, and then the teams we play (near) the end of the trip are fighting for their playoff lives,” Maurice said. “There’s a whole bunch of teams that are four or five points out, and they’re right there.”
Prior to the Boston loss, the Panthers posted two shutout wins in a row and three in their past four games — outscoring the opposition 12-1.
–Field Level Media
