Joseph Woll made 22 saves to help the Toronto Maple Leafs stave off elimination with a 2-0 win against the Florida Panthers in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Friday in Sunrise, Fla.
Game 7 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday night in Toronto.
The Maple Leafs have not advanced to the Eastern Conference finals since 2002, while the reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers will be trying to make the conference finals for a third straight season.
“There’s a lot on the line,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said of Game 7. “Everything’s on the line.”
Woll, starting his fifth straight game in place of Anthony Stolarz, who sustained an upper-body injury in the second period of Game 1, posted his first postseason shutout in his ninth playoff start. He has just two career regular-season shutouts in his four NHL seasons.
Auston Matthews and Max Pacioretty scored third-period goals for Toronto, which was coming off an embarrassing 6-1 home loss on Wednesday.
“We played a simple game tonight,” Berube said. “We were determined.”
Sergei Bobrovsky made 15 saves for the Panthers, who had won three in a row to grab a 3-2 series lead.
“Just win or learn,” Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov said of the Game 6 loss. “Today, we learn.”
After two scoreless periods, Matthews gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead at 6:20 of the third.
Florida’s Aaron Ekblad missed an outlet pass from defense partner Gustav Forsling, and Mitch Marner recovered at the Panthers’ blue line. Marner quickly passed to Matthews, who skated into the left circle before beating Bobrovsky with a wrist shot.
“He plays 200 feet for me,” Berube said of Matthews. “Touches all areas of the game. Got a big goal for us.”
It was the first goal of the series for Matthews, the team’s third-leading goal-scorer during the regular season (33), and just the second goal allowed by Bobrovsky in the past nine periods.
Pacioretty made it 2-0 when he got ahead of the defense and chipped in a centering pass from Bobby McMann to finish a rush at 14:17.
“It’s fun, it’s a lot of fun. I can’t wait,” Pacioretty said of playing a Game 7. “It’s going to be. … We’re going to war.”
Despite having the only two power plays of the first period, the Panthers were outshot 7-2. Florida did not record a shot on goal over the final 14:17 of the opening period.
The Maple Leafs then went silent and did not produce a shot on goal the first 10-plus minutes of the second period.
As for Game 7, coach Paul Maurice wants his players to leave it all on the ice as the Panthers try to keep their hopes of consecutive Cup titles alive.
“They are free,” Maurice said. “All the energy that you got with no concern about tomorrow.”
–Field Level Media
