'There's Not A Lot Of Room': How The Panthers Made Life Difficult For Maple Leafs In Playoff-Like Matchup

The Panthers scored two of their three goals on the power play, which was the difference in this game.

Mar 13, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Max Domi (11) shoots the puck past Florida Panthers defenseman Nate Schmidt (88) scoring a goal during the third period at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

The Florida Panthers are a difficult team to beat.

Even without Matthew Tkachuk, new acquisition Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad, the Panthers won 3-2 on Thursday in Toronto. They also showed why they'll be a tough out once the playoffs roll around.

John Tavares opened the scoring two minutes into the game off a great feed from William Nylander for his 27th goal of the season. Just over 15 minutes later, Sam Bennett found himself all alone in front of the net on the power play and beat Anthony Stolarz to tie the game.

Sam Bennett ties it on the power play pic.twitter.com/7QOT8MfLF9
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) March 13, 2025

Niko Mikkola and Bennett, again, added goals in the second period, extending their lead over the Maple Leafs to 3-1. Both goals by Bennett in the game came on the power play and Florida went 2-for-3 on the man advantage.

Max Domi helped Toronto get back into the game in the third period, beating Sergei Bobrovsky from the top of the circle for his fifth goal this season. It's the 30-year-old's second goal in six games.

MAX DOMI 🚨

MAXIMUM EFFORT! pic.twitter.com/BymlU7XpIv
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) March 14, 2025

However, as the Panthers always do, they made life tough on the Maple Leafs in the game's final minutes. Although Toronto had several chances late in the third period, Florida smothered most of them, proving why they're so strong.

"Well, I knew going in, and we all knew going in, it's tight. The way they play, there's not a lot of room, and you've got to stay patient within your game and not force things, and I thought we did a good job of that," Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said post-game.

"We limited them shots, and they limited us shots. I mean, that's a high-volume shot team. So I thought our checking was good, and I thought we did a lot of good things. You always want to be better. Trust me. We've got to push through this and get better.

"But, we competed hard, and it was a hard game. It was a tough, tight hockey game out there. And, again, we had power-play opportunities, and we didn't capitalize on them, and they did."

good deflection from Knies, gets a couple of whacks at the rebound but Bobrovsky stops them pic.twitter.com/t7Vi8D42km
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) March 14, 2025

Toronto had as many power plays as Florida, but couldn't capitalize once.

"I thought our execution wasn't great. The first couple of power plays, we just didn't seem to make the right reads or obviously execute with the puck as we needed to," John Tavares said.

"And then the opportunity we got in the third was a lot better. We had a post and we seemed to create some more pressure and get to some more areas. And then, at the end, I just see pucks are bouncing on us a little bit. We just couldn't seem to execute."

With the Panthers' ability to close off opportunities quickly, Berube would've liked to have seen the power play move the puck faster.

"They're very aggressive, very aggressive. And I thought we could have moved the puck quicker. There was opportunities that were there that we didn't see them. There was a few plays where we shot the puck, missed the net," the head coach said.

"We got to make sure that we were hitting the net on those plays. And, there's some backside plays that were available where we didn't see them."

the puck was that close to being out of the zone pic.twitter.com/kjBtqU6QsB
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) March 14, 2025

The Maple Leafs' power play started the season rather quiet. They struggled to find the back of the net and looked disconnected. Over time, though, Toronto has gotten back on track with the man advantage and is now in ninth place (24.2%).

(Florida's power play is right behind them, with a 24.1% success rate.)

If the Maple Leafs want constant success when it matters most, they must strike when there's a chance.

"We've just got to find a way to put a full 60 together like that and that's when we can start beating teams like that because that's the measuring stick over there," Max Domi said. "We've just got to keep building confidence and that's what we've got to beat."

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