After three wins in a row, the Florida Panthers have their streak against the Toronto Maple Leafs could well have ended in a so-called sweep, but the Leafs did not agree to such a grandiose failure and, having taken one game in Sunrise, returned the battle for reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in Toronto. However, there was not much reason to remain optimistic among the crazy Maple Leafs fans: at home, Sheldon Keefe's team won only once in this playoff and suffered 4 out of 5 losses until today's match. Today they were waiting for the fifth defeat. It's the last one this season.
“Florida,” even with the active movement of “Toronto” in the attack, realized two of its moments in the first period and called into question at least some prospects for the Canadian club to recoup. Together with the excellent game of Sergei Bobrovsky, only the most inveterate fans of the team believed in the success of the “leaves”.
And I must say that they did not believe in vain. After all, Toronto still won back two goals.
Even in the middle of the second period, Morgan Reilly, thanks to a rebound from the leg of Panthers defender Nick Cousins, reduced the gap in the score, and less than five minutes before the end of the main time of the meeting, William Nylander remembered that he was actually one of the leaders of «Toronto», and turned the game into overtime.
Nylander's goal was an outlet for the Maple Leafs after an incident that occurred late in the second period. The score could have been equalized already at that moment, but the arbitrators intervened. All the same Morgan Reilly showed goalscoring skills and saw the puck in the goal of Sergei Bobrovsky. And she — the puck — really visited the possessions of the Russian goalkeeper «Panthers». Bobrovsky did not immediately react to Reilly's shot and stopped the projectile after it had rolled to the far post. Subsequently, the puck crawled over the goal line, and the defender, “Toronto” rightly ran to rejoice. As it turned out, prematurely.
The arbitrators spent about ten minutes watching the video replay of the episode and really saw a hockey projectile in the goal, but the goal was still not counted. The fact is that the puck crossed the goal line already after the game was stopped, and Bobrovsky, rising, unintentionally pushed the puck into the goal with the blade of his skate. And while all of Canada was outraged by the decision of the referee — and the verdict was accepted by the famous Canadian referee Jean Hebert — the NHL promptly explained the intricacies of the rules of the game. he thought about it, but did not have the physical ability to blow the whistle to pause.
After this phantom goal and Nylander's puck, Bobrovsky no longer opened his possessions to his opponent. Although the moments in “Toronto” was plenty – even in overtime, when Auston Matthews had the opportunity to extend the series. In total for the match, the Russian goalkeeper of the Panthers repelled 50 shots out of 52. No goalkeeper of the club has achieved such a loud triumph in the history of Florida.
As well as Nick Cousins' goal in the final stage of the first overtime. His puck sent the Maple Leafs on vacation and Florida to the Eastern Finals.
The Panthers are only the second time in their history, and the first time since 1996, to play in a conference final. For reaching the decisive stage of the struggle for the Stanley Cup, the Bobrovsky gang will fight with the Carolina Hurricanes, which previously eliminated the New Jersey Devils.