Before the goal, Seth Jones made one play to keep the puck in the zone.
“It was an incredible play,” Bennett said of Jones’ strong efforts. “I was tired and didn’t want to backcheck there so I was hoping he kept it. It was a great second effort by him and that led to the goal.”
Max Domi, who fell into the Maple Leafs’ deficit in the third season, carved out a shot from the slot to make it 3-2 at 4:26 shortly after Toronto’s power play expired.
From there, Sergei Bobrovsky closed the door.
The two Vezina Trophy winner, finishing with 24 saves, stopped seven of the eight shots faced in the third term, held by the Panthers, securing two big points on the road.
Making history along the way, Bobrovsky won his 424th career victory, beating Thailand with Tony Esposito (423), claiming his only possession of 10th place on the NHL’s best-ever victory list.
“I’m 3-1, he won’t like 3-2 goals, and you think now he’ll have a hard time defeating him because he’s upset online,” coach Paul Maurice said of Bobrovsky’s milestone. “He’s perfectly suited to our team. He’s very calm on that net.”
They said that
“He’s a great player and he’ll be a great player in this league for a long time.” – Mackie Samoskevich’s Sam Bennett
“It takes courage to make the game hard gap, and we were pretty good at it.” – Paul Maurice on Florida’s defensive efforts
“We put them outside and let Bobby (Sergei Bobrovsky) do the rest.” – Nicomickola, including the Toronto attack.
Cat statistics
– Sam Bennett has 13 points (6 goals, 7 assists) in the last 12 games.
– Mackie Samoskevich scored at least one point in five of his last six games.
-Aleksander Barkov won the team’s best 10 showdowns.
-Seth Jones blocked a team high three shot in goal.
-Eetu Luostarinen produced a team-high five hits.
-Panthers controlled 78.26% of the shots when Nate Schmidt was on the ice 5-5.
-Sergei Bobrovsky won his 166th career victory after his defeat.
What’s next?
The Panthers will face the Montreal Canadians at Bell Centre at 7pm on Saturday for another game in Canada.
Click here to find a place to watch the game in South Florida.
