5 Takeaways from Panthers comeback OT win against the Maple Leafs

TORONTO – The Panthers entered tonight’s game against the Maple Leafs losers of four-straight. The team was desperate for a win as the season is quickly coming to an end. 

 

After a heroic performance by backup goaltender Alex Lyon, the Panthers came back to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime, picking up two huge points and snapping their worst losing streak of the season.

 

Here’s tonight’s takeaways.

Anton Lundell snaps his cold streak

The 21-year-old Finn hasn’t had the best sophomore season with just 28 points in 65 games entering Wednesday’s game. He finished his rookie season with 44 points in the same number of games.

 

With Sam Bennett missing the last five games to injury, Lundell has had to play a bigger role in the Panthers top-six as the second line center, however he has struggled to find his game. Lundell had 0 points in March entering tonight’s game against Toronto.

 

One minute into the game the Leafs turned the puck over in their own zone, which led to  Lundell scoring his first goal and point in over a month. The last time he found the score sheet was on Feb. 28 against Tampa.

 

Lundell getting on the board should be a huge relief for the youngest player on the team. Maybe this will spark something for the last seven games of the season.

Alex Lyon takes the crease in absence of Sergei Bobrovsky – He delivers

All season long, Panthers’ head coach Paul Maurice announced who he’d plan to start in goal to the media prior to the game.

 

It came as a bit of a surprise to hear him say after the morning skate that he wouldn’t announce the starting goalie until gametime.

 

Just a few hours before puck drop it was announced that the Panthers had recalled goalie Mack Guzda from AHL Charlotte, which led to the assumption that Bobrovsky would not dress tonight against the Maple Leafs.  That would be the case as Alex Lyon got the start with Mack Guzda as his backup. 

 

The Panthers are usually outshooting their opponents with their league best 36.9 shots per-game, but tonight Alex Lyon had to fend against a Toronto team that put 40 on his net.

 

Through the first two periods Lyon saved 28 of the 29 shots he faced, keeping an outplayed Florida team in the game heading into the third.

 

After the Panthers forced OT, Lyon had to stand on his head one more time. He had Toronto’s best scorer Auston Matthews in on him alone and he flashed the leather to keep the Panthers game and possibly playoff hopes alive. 

 

“He scored on Bob like that in Florida last week,so we talked about that a lot, how he’s so good at moving to the net front quickly and coming high and going low glove,” Lyon said Wednesday night. 

 

The Panthers goalie ended the night with 38 saves, easily being the best player on the ice.

 

Lyon, like the rest of the team after tonight’s win, still believes they can make the push for the post season. 

 

“Obviously we all know what the standings look like, what do we have to lose? Why play scared, why play nervous? This is what you play the game for.”

 

Penalty trouble, penalty killing success

Florida’s 11.6 penalty minutes per-game is just under the most in the league, and tonight it was no different with 10 penalty minutes on the boxscore.

 

The Panthers had their hands full, having to kill four penalties with the likes of Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares on the Leafs’ power play. 

 

Fortunately for Florida they were perfect 4/4 on the pk tonight, mostly because of the spectacular play of Alex Lyon in net. 

 

Paul Maurice lets his team have it on the bench

The Panthers’ head coach hasn’t had too many instances this season where we saw him “lose his cool” on the bench. 

 

Well, that wasn’t the case tonight.

 

Florida started the second period with a 1-0 lead, however that quickly vanished three minutes into the second when Zach Aston-Reese put Toronto on the board. Right after the Leafs tied it, they appeared to have scored a second goal just moments after. 

 

While the Panthers challenged the goal for offsides, Maurice was absolutely letting his team hear his frustration. 

 

The players didn’t say what was said, but from the video – well… it didn’t seem PG. Panthers captain Sasha Barkov kind of confirmed that.

 

“Oh you don’t want to know,” Barkov said when asked about Maurice’s second period timeout talk.

 

Paul Maurice spoke about his bench shouting match after the game. 

 

“It was more of a cleanse for the coach, a cleanse, I needed to, it was cathartic,” Maurice said. “I thought it was a very nice opportunity to share, feelings.” 

 

Brandon Montour shines again as the OT hero

The rise of Brandon Montour’s game has been one of the few bright spots for the Panthers. 

 

Tonight he picked up another OT winner, while also setting a few franchise records on route. 

 

Montour now holds the Panthers all-time record for points in a season by a defenseman, the most game-winning goals by a defenseman and he became the second Panthers’ defenseman to have multiple OT goals in a season. 

 

“Ya it’s cool, obviously like I said you don’t go into the year looking to break records, but then again the coaching staff and players believe in me and playing a big opportunity and big role in this team,” Montour said.  “I’m just trying to take every opportunity and it’s nice to get that milestone.”

 

Montour now has 14 goals and 63 points on the year.