Leafs gain 'huge confidence' from patient win over Panthers
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What did Wednesday's win over the Panthers mean to the Leafs?
"A lot," said winger Matthew Knies, who scored the game-winning goal in the third period. "We kind of owe it to those guys. So, yeah, it feels good in this locker room. We'll try and keep that juice for the rest of the regular season here."
Toronto had lost both previous games to Florida this season, including a 3-2 setback at Scotiabank Arena on March 13.
With Wednesday's regulation win, the Leafs extended their lead over the third-place Panthers to four points in the race for top spot in the Atlantic Division.
"Our goal is to win the division and get home-ice advantage and this is a team, more likely than not, if we want to accomplish what we want to accomplish, that we will run into in the playoffs," said goalie Anthony Stolarz, who beat his old team for the first time.
"So, just being able to match them for 60 minutes and kind of take over in the third and score some timely goals and then shut it down towards the end was huge for us. Huge for our confidence."
The Tampa Bay Lightning are three points back with a game in hand, which they will play on Thursday in Ottawa. After hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, the Leafs will head south to face both the Panthers and Lightning early next week.
The Leafs are 3-0-0 against the Lightning this season, but the Panthers seemed to have their number previously.
That feeling changed on Wednesday night as the Leafs rallied from a goal down and played a patient game to outlast the defending champions.
"We just stuck with it," said winger Mitch Marner, who delivered a goal and an assist in the third period. "I don't know what the scoring chances were, but it seemed like a low-event game, not a lot of space out there, just kind of grinding away."
High-danger chances favoured the Panthers 13-12 in 5-on-5 play, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
After Toronto started strong, Florida tilted the ice in their favour during the second period.
"We hung on and battled through that," said coach Craig Berube. "In the third period, we were better again. We were on our toes playing. We ended up getting a lead and closed the game out. Overall, it is the type of hockey we knew we had to play against Florida. There's no room. You have to fight for space. It's a lot of stuff around your net. It is about winning battles — puck battles — constantly."
"We know what their pedigree's all about," said centre John Tavares, who opened the scoring for the Leafs, "how well they play as a team and how structurally sound they are, how hard they compete, and obviously a lot of skill, a lot of depth, different elements they bring. It was a really good test."
The Panthers were playing for the third time in four nights. Florida arrived in Toronto after losing to the Montreal Canadiens in overtime on Tuesday night.
"We were patient," said Knies. "We were resilient. Them playing on a back to back, we just had to be patient and wait for them to make mistakes and that's what we did, and we capitalized on them."
The Panthers are 4-6-1 since defenceman Aaron Ekblad was suspended for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.
Florida is also currently missing winger Matthew Tkachuk, defenceman Dmitry Kulikov and centre Nico Sturm due to injury.
Panthers captain and top-line centre Aleksander Barkov was a late scratch on Wednesday after sustaining an upper-body injury in Montreal.
"We all know how good he is," Berube said. "It was an opportunity for us to take advantage of him not playing but, at the same time ... we missed our star for a number of games this year and won hockey games. Players step up."
The Leafs are 10-5-0 without Auston Matthews this season.
The Panthers fell to 6-4-1 without Barkov this season.
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Matthews set up Marner for a third-period goal, which gave Toronto its first lead on Wednesday. The Leafs captain collected a rebound and fed Marner in the slot.
"What he does with his body, he can put himself in great spots to get second opportunities," Marner said of his long-time linemate. "For me, I just tried to find a quiet area and lucky enough he was able to find me and I was able to get it on and off."
A little later in the third period, Marner set up Knies for a breakaway and, ultimately, the deciding goal.
"Saw some space behind their D," Knies said. "I was screaming for it from Mitch."
"Saw Kniesy breaking through the middle," Marner said. "I kind of just gave it a second or two to develop to really get behind that d-man."
Once it was clear that Knies was behind Niko Mikkola, Marner sent a saucer pass from deep in his own zone to the Panthers blueline.
"Tried to make a pass towards him that would go through the one stick and land on his," Marner said. "Lucky enough it worked out."
"I was trying to bat it out of the air," Knies said, "but it perfectly landed on there."
It was Marner's 69th assist, which matched his career high set in the 2022-23 season.
"Great move by him," Marner said, crediting Knies.
Well, it wasn't quite how the super sophomore drew it up.
"I saw he was going for a poke check and tried to go five hole to be honest," Knies said with a grin. "But fortunately it went in."
The puck bounced off the post before being knocked into the net by a sliding Sergei Bobrovsky.
After the Panthers scored a power-play goal to pull within one, Marner, Matthews and Tavares capped their strong nights by helping the Leafs lock down the game in a 5-on-6 situation.
"They obviously lead by example and we need them to," said Knies. "You saw in the last minute and a half. They stay out there and kill it along the wall at the very end of the game. It's important for those guys to do that kind of thing and step up for us. It's fun to watch, to be honest. It's really cool for them to do stuff like that, the not pretty stuff."
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Toronto's second line supplied the Leafs first goal with Bobby McMann winning a battle in the slot to send a puck to William Nylander, who made a nice pass to Tavares for a deflection.
"Great job by Bobby staying on the puck there and Willy giving me a really good pass," Tavares said. "Really just zipped it over hard so I just had to redirect it. Really great play by my linemates."
Tavares leads the NHL with 15 goals in 20 games since the 4 Nations Face-Off. Asked if he's feeling more confident these days, Tavares insisted it's business as usual.
"Enjoy it, know it's helping the team, but continue to focus on playing well and not try and get too caught up in all that," the 34-year-old said. "Just trying to execute and play well game after game, day after day. It's really boring, but it's putting me in a good spot mentally."
Tavares always seems to be the same guy regardless of what's happening on the ice or even off the ice. During the summer he relinquished the team's captaincy, passing the 'C' to Matthews. Tavares is also playing in the final year of his contract.
"As a coach you love a player like that," Berube said. "You love the professionalism and mindset day in and day out. He's almost like having another coach around just to ask him things and what his thoughts are."
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Stolarz stopped 29 of 31 shots to outduel Bobrovsky, who allowed three goals on 26 shots.
"You look down and he's making save after save," Stolarz said. "I kind of knew that you have to dial it in."
Bobrovsky was locked in early, stopping all 11 shots he faced in the first period.
Stolarz picked up his fourth straight win and, in the process, made a statement about his playoff readiness.
"It's going to be like that every night as we get closer and closer to playoffs," the 31-year-old said. "Teams that are fighting for position, their goalies are going to be on and you're going to have to match them and I'm up to that challenge."
Stolarz has never made a playoff start, but did see relief action in the Stanley Cup final last year. The New Jersey native is embracing the chance to play more this season and has already established a new career high with 30 games played.
"He's one of the most vocal goalies I've ever had, which is great," said Marner, who appreciates how Stolarz directs traffic when the Leafs are defending.
Despite being in his first season in Toronto, Stolarz isn't shy about providing feedback to teammates.
"I've heard him a few times, ah, not too happy about things," Berube said with a chuckle. "He is fiery, which is good. You like that fire."
"He's kind of ruthless back there," said Knies with a smile. "He gets screaming and yelling at us, but I think it just makes him play better. He's extremely motivated and wants to win really bad."
Stolarz is up to 17 wins on the season, which is also a new career high. He won 16 games with the Panthers last season.
"He's got a little bit of a laidback personality," said Tavares. "But his intensity once he puts those pads on is pretty incredible, the way he's barking and talking out there and into the game."
Stolarz ranks third in the NHL with a .920 save percentage, which is behind only Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck (.924) and Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy (.922).
Stolarz and Joseph Woll have mostly alternated starts since Stolarz returned from a knee injury just before the 4 Nations break in February.
Woll is 25-13-1 with a .906 save percentage this season.
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Defenceman Jake McCabe left Wednesday's game late in the third period after being hit into the boards by Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe.
Fourth-line centre David Kampf sustained an upper-body injury and did not return for the third period.
"I got no updates now on injures," Berube said after the game. "Sorry guys. I haven't talked to anybody about that."
The Leafs will be back on the ice on Friday for a practice.
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As part of a deadline deal to bring in defenceman Brandon Carlo, the Leafs sent top prospect Fraser Minten to the Boston Bruins.
"It was a tough moment to get the call," Minten told TSN on Thursday. "Some tough goodbyes right away."
The Leafs selected Minten in the second round of the 2022 draft.
"I remember prior to the draft kind of knowing that they were pretty interested and almost crossing my fingers hoping that that would work out," Minten recalled. "It's such a cool place to play, especially being a Canadian kid, you're seeing them on TV all day long when you're growing up. So, to get the opportunity to put that sweater over your shoulders and wear that logo is pretty cool."
Minten made his NHL debut last year and suited up in four games before being sent back to juniors.
"First game will never really get out of my mind," the Vancouver native said. "I think that was probably the coolest singular moment with just it being against Montreal and the way it ended in a shootout with a big comeback [down two late in the third] and Auston had a hat trick that game, and just my family being there. That's probably the coolest moment."
Minten played 15 games with the Leafs this season and scored his first career NHL goal.
Minten appreciated all the support from Leafs Nation during his time in Toronto.
"It was pretty brief for me, but every time I was around it was nothing but good memories," he said. "Wish those boys all the best this year."
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Lines in Wednesday's game:
Knies - Matthews - Marner
McMann - Tavares - Nylander
Laughton - Domi - Jarnkrok
Holmberg - Kampf - Lorentz
McCabe - Tanev
Rielly - Carlo
Benoit - Ekman-Larsson
Stolarz
Woll