HEARTBREAKER: Maple Leafs lose in overtime on goal by Brad Marchand
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The defending Stanley Cup champions aren’t going down without a fight.
It’s a series now, as the saying goes, after the Florida Panthers beat the Maple Leafs 5-4 in overtime in Game 3 on Friday night at Amerant Bank Arena.
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HEARTBREAKER: Maple Leafs lose in overtime on goal by Brad Marchand Back to video
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The Leafs lead the best-of-seven 2-1, with Game 4 on Sunday night in Sunrise. The teams will head back to Toronto for Game 5 on Wednesday.
Brad Marchand, who drove the Leafs up a wall when he was with the Boston Bruins, scored the winner at 15:27 of the extra period when his shot went off Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly, over goalie Joseph Woll and into the net.
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who hasn’t been at his best in the series, made difficult saves on Matthew Knies and William Nylander in overtime.
The Leafs killed off a Max Pacioretty tripping minor late in the third period that carried over for 13 seconds of overtime.
Toronto couldn’t get much going on offence in the third but was able to tie the game at 10:56.
That’s when Rielly scored after putting a shot at the net. Bobrovsky made a routine save, but the puck hit the leg of defenceman Seth Jones and bounced over the line.
Later in the third, Rielly hit the cross bar off the rush.
The Leafs’ best defenceman, Chris Tanev, missed some shifts in third after going to the room. The veteran left the game following a hit from Tomas Nosek and a bump from Jonah Gadjovich, but did return. Afterward, coach Craig Berube said it was an equipment issue that caused Tanev to leave and that his health was not an issue.
After John Tavares scored his second goal of the night to give the Leafs a 3-1 lead at 2:52 of the second period, Florida took over.
The Panthers weren’t despondent after Tavares’ tip of a Mitch Marner shot went off Gustav Forsling and past Bobrovsky during a Toronto power play.
Florida scored two goals in a span of 64 seconds to tie the game.
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A goal by Sam Reinhart stood following a review, as the puck crossed the line despite the efforts by Woll and defenceman Brandon Carlo to keep it out. That came at 4:13.
At 4:17, Carter Verhaeghe deposited a Sam Bennett pass behind Woll to make it 3-3.
The Leafs have had few bad spells during the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. The second period, or a good chunk of it, was one.
After Toronto failed to record a shot on goal during a Dmitry Kulikov penalty, the Panthers took a 4-3 lead at 15:07.
A shot by Nosek went off Gadjovich and past Woll, who got a piece of the puck with his blocker but nothing more.
The Leafs couldn’t have had a better start to the game, opening a 2-0 lead six minutes in.
Knies scored on the Leafs’ first shot on goal, firing the puck into an open net after Marner hit iron.
The goal came at 23 seconds and was the fourth-fastest in Leafs franchise history from the start of a playoff game and fastest since 1962, when Bob Pulford scored at 17 seconds of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final. The Leafs record is 15 seconds, set by Sid Smith in Game 1 of the 1951 Cup final. Four years later, Smith scored at 17 seconds in the 1955 semifinal.
Tavares scored his first of the game 5 1/2 minutes later, scoring on a wraparound backhand after he was set up by Max Pacioretty.
Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov cut the Leafs lead by one goal at 7:38 when his shot deflected off the stick of Rielly and past Woll.
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