Toronto Maple Leafs at Florida Panthers

· National Hockey League

Toronto Maple Leafs

47-26-4

Final
1 - 3

Florida Panthers

45-29-4

Panthers top Maple Leafs 3-1, snap 5-game slide and tighten Atlantic Division race

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Florida Panthers: Game Highlights

Gustav Forsling also scored for Florida, which got 17 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Carter Verhaeghe sealed it with an empty-net goal with 46.9 seconds left.

John Tavares scored his 37th goal of the season for Toronto, which saw its four-game winning streak snapped.

The Panthers got center Aleksander Barkov back in the lineup after he missed three games with an upper-body injury. Florida — which has four games left — closed within four points of Toronto and two of Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division race.

Takeaways Maple Leafs: Toronto went 1-3-0 against Florida this season. The Panthers — a possible first-round opponent for Toronto this year — are now 10-3-2 against the Maple Leafs going back to late in the 2022-23 season.

Panthers: Sam Bennett will miss the rest of the regular season with an upper-body injury, joining Matthew Tkachuk (lower-body) and Aaron Ekblad (suspended) among those out until the playoffs. Ekblad can't return until Game 3 of Round 1, and the Panthers haven't said for certain that Tkachuk will be back for Game 1.

Key moment Florida turned the puck over giving Auston Matthews a point-blank shot from the slot with 5:32 left, then a rebound chance by Matthew Knies. Bobrovsky kicked both away, protecting Florida's 2-1 lead.

Key stat An oddity: The first three goals of the game combined to have exactly one assist awarded. Verhaeghe's goal was assisted by Brad Marchand and Barkov.

Up next Toronto visits Tampa Bay on Wednesday. Florida plays host to Detroit on Thursday.

This story was first published on Apr. 8, 2025. It was updated on Apr. 9, 2025 to correct that John Tavares scored his 37th goal of the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, not Tampa Bay.

Regular Season Series

FLA wins series 3-1

Scoring Summary

Goal	1st Period 9:26	Gustav Forsling Goal (11) Wrist Shot, assists: Anton Lundell (28)
Goal	2nd Period 1:06	John Tavares Goal (37) Wrist Shot, assists: none
Goal	3rd Period 1:04	Eetu Luostarinen Goal (9) Backhand, assists: none
Goal	3rd Period 19:13	Carter Verhaeghe Goal (18) Wrist Shot, assists: Brad Marchand (28), Aleksander Barkov (49)

Statistics

TOR		FLA
18	Blocked Shots	11
29	Hits	43
6	Takeaways	2
18	Shots	37
0	Power Play Goals	0
2	Power Play Opportunities	1
0.0	Power Play Percentage	0.0
0	Short Handed Goals	0
0	Shootout Goals	0
13	Faceoffs Won	29
31.0	Faceoff Win Percent	69.0
18	Giveaways	7
1	Total Penalties	2
2	Penalty Minutes	4

Florida Panthers Injuries

NAME, POS	STATUS	DATE
Anton Lundell, C	Day-To-Day	Apr 16
Tomas Nosek, LW	Day-To-Day	Apr 16
A.J. Greer, LW	Day-To-Day	Apr 16
Aleksander Barkov, C	Day-To-Day	Apr 16
Sam Reinhart, C	Day-To-Day	Apr 16