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The Toronto Maple Leafs appeared to be following the same script as they did after losing the opener of their first-round series against Tampa Bay. The Leafs bolted out to a 2-0 first period, but the Florida Panthers took advantage of Toronto’s propensity for making careless errors, as they were unable to recover after Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling scored in a span of 47 seconds in a 3-2 loss in Game 2 of their best-of-seven series at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.
Alex Kerfoot and Ryan O’Reilly gave the Leafs the early lead, as the Leafs benefited form some energetic play from their fourth line and an effective power play, but Anton Lundell responded midway through the first period to get the Panthers on the scoreboard.
Toronto’s consistent inconsistency, which was present in five of their six games against the Lightning and Game 1 against Florida, reared its ugly head at the start of the second, as a William Nylander neutral zone giveaway led to Barkov’s tying goal just 19 seconds into the middle frame. The Leafs appeared dazed immediately afterward, and once again surrendered the puck just inside their zone, as a drop pass from Mitch Marner to Auston Matthews was intercepted and led to Forsling’s game-winner.
“(Our play in the second was) disappointing….baffling, frankly.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game.…We didn’t find our way back. This one is disappointing. We were rolling early in the game. We just gave it back to them. Those are things we haven’t done, and frankly, you just can’t do if you are serious about winning.…
Florida after taking the lead relied on the stellar goaltending of Sergei Bobrovsky, who rebounded from a shaky start and held Toronto at bay, stopping all 22 Leaf shots in the second and third period. Samsonov (who made 26 saves in the loss) had no chance on the Lundell and Forsling goals, and was screened on Barkov’s tying tally, but other than a sprawling save on Aaron Ekblad in the first, did not make any stops like Bobrovsky that changed the momentum of the contest.
Once again, the Leafs core group was held off the scoreboard other than O’Reilly’s power play marker (Matthews and Marner had assists), while Florida’s prominent players made a difference. Sam Reinhart set up Lundell with a great anticipatory play, Barkov scored the tying marker, and Matthew Tkachuk set up Forsling for the game-winner.
The most glaring of the core struggles is Nylander, who opened the playoffs with seven points in the first four games against Tampa and has gone pointless and -4 in the last four games, in spite of 20 shots on goal.
The injury news was not good for Toronto, as winger Matthew Knies did not return after being wrestled to the ice by Sam Bennett in the first period. Florida appeared to be targeting Knies early on, as Tkachuk hit the Leafs rookie up high before Bennett grabbed him behind the Florida net. Bennett cross-checked Michael Bunting in the neck area late in the second and on Friday was fined $5000 by the NHL.
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