The Toronto Maple Leafs (20-15-7) defeated the Florida Panthers (22-17-3) 4-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday night to extend their point streak to seven games.
Easton Cowan, Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews, and Bobby McMann scored for the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll made 31 saves.
Related: Auston Matthews Is Back to Being a Lethal Scoring Threat
Carter Verhaeghe scored for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves.
Game Recap
After a strong start to the night for the Maple Leafs, Cowan rewarded his club with his fifth of the season with just 24 seconds left in the opening period. Nicholas Roy took a drop pass from Morgan Rielly above the right circle in the offensive zone, sent a diagonal cross-ice pass to Nicholas Robertson on the left side of the crease, and Robertson placed a perfect pass across the crease to Cowan, who shot it home into a yawning net.
Knies doubled the lead for the home team just 42 seconds into the middle frame with a tip-in waste-high off a point shot from Troy Stecher that beat Bobrovsky glove-side.
Matthews scored his 21st of the season at 4:01 to give the Maple Leafs a 3-0 lead. The Panthers turned the puck over after Bobrovsky played the puck behind the net. Knies stole the puck along the left boards, carried it through the Panthers’ defense to the right side of the crease, wrapped a pass back to Matthews in the low slot, and Matthews snapped a shot past Bobrovsky.
Verhaeghe put the Panthers on the board at 11:38 of the third period on a shot from behind the net in the right corner that deflected off of Woll and into the net.
McMann scored an empty-netter at 19:52 to seal Toronto’s 4-1 victory.
The Panthers outshot the Maple Leafs 32-23 and went 0-for-3 on the power play, while the Maple Leafs went 0-for-2.
Up Next
Both teams are back in action on Thursday night. The Panthers are in Montreal to take on the Canadiens, while the Maple Leafs will head to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers.
