Marchand scores in OT, Panthers top Maple Leafs 5-4 to cut series deficit to 2-1

Brad Marchand scored on a deflected shot at 15:27 of overtime and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night to cut their deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 2-1.

Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Jonah Gadjovich scored for Florida, which got 27 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Evan Rodrigues had two assists for the Panthers. They are 13-2 in their last 15 playoff overtime games.

John Tavares scored twice, and Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly also scored for the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll stopped 32 shots.

Game 4 will be in Sunrise on Sunday night.

Florida erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-1, and that's been almost impossible to do against Toronto this season.

By the numbers, it was all looking good for the Maple Leafs. They were 30-3-0 when leading after the first period, including playoffs, the second-best record in the league. They were 38-8-2, the league's third-best record when scoring first. They had blown only 11 leads all season, none in the playoffs. They were 44-3-1 in games where they led by two goals or more.

Combine all that with Toronto having won all 11 of its previous best-of-seven series when taking a 2-0 lead at home, Florida being 0-5 in series where it dropped both Games 1 and 2, and league-wide, teams facing 0-2 deficits come back to win those series only about 14 per cent of the time.

But Marchand — a longtime Toronto playoff nemesis from his days in Boston — got the biggest goal of Florida's season, rendering all those numbers moot for now.

The Leafs got two goals that deflected in off of Panthers defencemen: Tavares' second goal nicked the glove of Gustav Forsling on its way past Bobrovsky for a 3-1 lead, and Rielly's goal redirected off Seth Jones' leg to tie it with 9:04 left in the third.

Knies scored 23 seconds into the game, the second time Toronto had a 1-0 lead in the first minute of this series. Tavares made it 2-0 at 5:57 and just like that, the Panthers were in trouble.

A diving Barkov threw the puck at the night and saw it carom in off a Toronto stick to get Florida on the board — only for Tavares to score again early in the second for a 3-1 Leafs lead.

Florida needed a break. It came.

Reinhart was credited with a goal after Woll thought he covered up the puck following a scrum in front of the net. But after review, it was determined the puck had crossed the line. Florida had life, the building was loud again and about a minute later, Verhaeghe tied it at 3-3.

Gadjovich made it 4-3 late in the second, before Rielly tied it midway through the third.

In classic Leafs fashion, fans had high hopes 

Soon-to-be disappointed Toronto fans had lined up outside Maple Leafs Square hours ahead of the game, including Daniel Azevedo and his friends. 

"We have to be the first ones to watch it," he said before puck-drop. "We need to put in the effort."

With his hair and face painted blue and wearing a blue Maple Leafs suit, Nathan Wood, 19, also showed up early.

He said he ordered the suit in September and waited months for it to arrive — along with the bleach for his hair and the oily face paint. 

"It takes two days to wash off, so I just leave it on constantly," he said. "You should see my pillow: completely blue."

Around the NHL

In other playoff action on Friday night, the Winnipeg Jets shut out the Dallas Stars to take Game 2 and tie their series at a game apiece.

Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves and Nikolai Ehlers had two goals for the Jets in the 4-0 victory on home ice.