Panthers halt skid, trim Leafs' Atlantic Division lead

Eetu Luostarinen scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and the Florida Panthers stopped a five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.

Gustav Forsling and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers (45-29-4, 94 points), who got 17 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

John Tavares scored for the Maple Leafs (47-26-4, 98 points) and Joseph Woll made 34 saves.

The Maple Leafs, who had a four-game winning streak end, lead the Atlantic Division by two points over the Tampa Bay Lightning and four over Florida, which won the season series over Toronto 3-1.

Florida opened the scoring at 9:25 of the first period. Anton Lundell easily won the faceoff with the puck sliding directly back to Forsling, whose long wrist shot fooled Woll.

The Panthers continued to be aggressive and forced turnovers, nearly adding to the lead before the one-sided period ended.

Toronto came out strong in the second period. Mitchell Marner rarely uses the slap shot, but rang the post 40 seconds into the period.

Tavares tied the game at 1:06 when he swept up a loose puck in the neutral zone and caught defenseman Nate Schmidt off balance, then scored on a shot from the left circle.

Woll stopped Brad Marchand on a short-handed breakaway at 12:18 of the second. It came during a power play during which Toronto managed one shot. The Panthers held a 28-14 advantage in shots on goal after two periods, which was indicative of the flow of the game and Woll's performance.

The Panthers caught a break at 1:04 of the third period to take the lead. Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly was behind the goal and tried to rim the puck. Instead, the puck deflected off the end boards to the front of the goal and Luostarinen poked it home.

Toronto went on the power play at 5:28 of the third, but were held without a shot on goal by Florida's smothering defense.

Verhaeghe scored into an empty net with 47 seconds left in regulation.

--Field Level Media