A late three-goal rally fell short for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as Aleksander Barkov’s goal midway through the third period provided the winning margin in a 4-3 victory for the Florida Panthers at Air Canada Center on Monday.
Rocco Grimaldi scored twice, Barkov and Nick Bjugstad scored for the Panthers, who clinched the Atlantic Division title with the win and a Tampa Bay Lightning loss to the New York Islanders.
Colin Greening tallied twice for Toronto and TJ Brennan scored his first NHL goal in three years in a furious third period rally, but the Leafs could not score the tying goal on Panthers backup Al Montoya.
Toronto have lost five of the last six games and remain tied with Edmonton for last place in the NHL. The Leafs will face the Columbus Blue Jackets in their home finale on Wednesday before finishing the regular season schedule in Philadelphia on Thursday and New Jersey on Saturday.
The game marked the first of Nazem Kadri’s four game suspension handed down by the NHL on Monday, forcing Leafs coach Mike Babcock to use rookie Frederik Gauthier in a defensive matchup against Barkov.
“I thought (Gauthier) was real good, but (Kadri) plays against those people for us, he’s a competitive guy, plays well without the puck, he’s hard for us and so we obviously miss him.… Babcock said following the game.
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The Leafs continued the migration of young talent back to the American Hockey League on Monday, as winger Nikita Soshnikov and defenseman Viktor Loov were reassigned to the Toronto Marlies, while winger Rich Clune was called up to take Kadri's spot in the lineup.
Soshnikov scored two goals and three assists in 11 games for the Leafs, but has been out since March 19 with an upper body injury. Loov had two assists for Toronto in four games in late February, but has been out for over a month with an undisclosed injury.
Both players are expected to be back at some point before the end of the AHL regular season on April 17.
The suspension to Kadri likely means that rookie William Nylander will stay the last three games of the Leafs season rather than being sent back to the AHL as Babcock indicated last week.
The 19-year-old assisted on Greening's first goal and has registered all of his 10 NHL points at home.
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Listen to the latest edition of “The Convo…, as CTV’s Norman James and myself discuss the seasons of Nazem Kadri and Steven Stamkos coming to an end and what the future may hold:
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