Panthers dominate Maple Leafs in Game 5 win

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By the midway point of the second period on Wednesday night, head coach Craig Berube was reduced to playing musical chairs with his forward lines.

Auston Matthews on John Tavares’s left wing? Sure.

Pairing Bobby McMann with William Nylander? Can’t hurt.

Nick Robertson, Max Domi and Matthew Knies? Worth a shot.

In the end, it was all for naught. Berube, like the Toronto Maple Leafs, simply ran out of ideas. Unable to solve the Florida Panthers or their all-star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky - right up until Robertson’s consolation goal with 1:06 to play - the Leafs fell to a 6-1 home defeat in Game 5, and are now on the brink of elimination as a result.

“It’s hard to explain it,” Berube said of the performance. “We all got to be better, myself included. You can’t start the game that way. That’s a big thing for me, sets a tone for the game. So yeah, I don’t have an answer for you for why. [It’s] sports. Things happen.”

But this wasn’t merely a loss. It was an annihilation, with the Leafs suffering their heaviest playoff defeat since they fell 7-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2004.

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They now have to pick up the pieces in a hurry, flying down for a do-or-die Game 6 on Friday in Sunrise, Fla. History won’t be on their side either, with the winner of Game 5 in a best-of-seven series that is tied at 2-2 holding an all-time series record of 237-62 (.793).

“It’s more of a mindset for me going into this Game 6 than anything else, it’s not X’s and O’s,” Berube said. “We know what they’re doing. And they played a simple game tonight, and they’re excellent at it, very good. I mean, they did exactly what they needed to do.”

Even worse from the Leafs point of view heading into Friday’s contest, the Panthers own an all-time series record of 5-1 (.833) when leading 3-2 in a best-of-seven series.

But Mitch Marner, who may have played his last home game as a Toronto Maple Leaf with him heading into unrestricted free agency after this season, says the Leafs have to get back to what made them successful earlier in the series.

“I thought tonight was really the first night that we just didn’t play well or play our game,” he said. “And when you do that against a team like that over there, they’re going to make you pay, and that’s what they did.”

In the days leading up to the game, Berube had publicly mulled over the possibility of shuffling around his lineup in a bid for offence. After scoring 13 goals in the first three games of the series – which had nudged Toronto into a 2-1 series lead – the Leafs had been shut out – and largely shut down - by the defending Stanley Cup champions in Game 4.

His captain, Auston Matthews – just a year removed from a 69-goal regular season – came into the game with just three goals in his past 18 postseason games, and none in nine career playoff games against Florida.

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For anyone hoping to see the Leafs flip the script from Games 3 and 4 in Florida, Wednesday’s opening period made for painful viewing.

Low-event hockey is one thing, but the fans in attendance had to wait until almost the five-minute mark to witness an actual shot on goal - a point shot from Nate Schmidt - which may as well have been a portent of things to come.

Those in blue and white looking for silver linings may well point to the fact that the Leafs managed to stay out of the penalty box – in comparison to the four trips they made in Sunday’s Game 4 – but other than an uptick in discipline, Wednesday’s opening stanza unfolded in much the same way, with the ice tilted heavily in the direction of Joseph Woll.

If the Leafs seemed disconnected, the Panthers picked right up where they left off, outshooting Toronto 13-6 in the first period, and missing the net entirely on some other half-decent chances.

And, just like in Game 4, they headed back to the dressing room with a slim lead. Aaron Ekblad took full advantage of a sequence of defensive miscues as Toronto failed to clear the puck, finding the top corner through a thicket of bodies on the team’s 13th shot of the period for his second of the playoffs, with Sam Reinhart and Jesper Boqvist drawing the assists.

Despite its paltry shot total, Toronto had its share of chances – particularly on a breakaway from Nylander and a point-blank shot from Knies – but Bobrovsky was more than up to the challenge.

Scott Laughton had the tying goal on his stick coming out of the dressing room for the second period, but he could only clang it off the post in the opening seconds.

That miss was to prove pivotal, as the Panthers jumped further in front just past the six-minute mark, with Dmitry Kulikov’s one-timer getting tipped past Woll by Laughton.

Just after the halfway point of the game the hole was 3-0, with Boqvist tipping in a cross-crease pass from Reinhart, deepening the sense of gloom around Scotiabank Arena.

That prompted Berube to bring out the line blender, dropping first Knies then Matthews to the left-wing spot on the second line, but it did little to stir the Leafs from their slumber.

And one second past the 14-minute mark it was too late anyway, with Niko Mikkola taking a pass from Anton Lundell and ripping a slap shot past Woll to put the result beyond doubt.

A fifth goal, by A.J. Greer with 13:37 remaining, was enough to spell the end of Woll’s night, with Matt Murray coming on in relief. Woll finished with 20 saves on 25 shots.

The goal also proved the limit of one fan’s patience too, with a Matthews No. 34 jersey getting thrown on the ice as fans began to stream towards the exits. Of course, that meant they missed Sam Bennett hammer the final nail into the coffin with his sixth goal of the playoffs with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Despite the disrespect, Matthews himself said he can hardly blame them.

“We didn’t give them much reason to stick around,” he said bluntly.