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

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Eetu Luostarinen scored about a minute into the third period, and the Florida Panthers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 on Tuesday night and helping the reigning Stanley Cup champions snap a five-game losing streak.

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.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL