SIMMONS: Much-criticized Matthews and Marner are giants for the Maple Leafs in Game 6

That’s what happens when Auston Matthews steps up and does the impossible and the improbable.

That’s what happens when the puck is on Matthews’ stick, with a defenceman between him and the net, with him drawing it back, sliding his wrist just slightly, altering the angle of his shot, confusing the goaltender.

And doing it all in less than a split-second.

And then he fired the puck, looking like the old Auston Matthews, when he was scoring all the time, looking like the greatest goal-scorer in hockey, and the Maple Leafs had a 1-0 lead over the Florida Panthers in a game in which they could have been eliminated.

“It was just an unbelievable shot from an unbelievable player,” said teammate Max Pacioretty.

Pacioretty scored the clincher in a 2-0 Leafs triumph, some 48 hours after they were blasted on home ice by the Panthers in Game 5, and looked like they didn’t care, couldn’t compete and were on the verge of bidding their season goodbye.

And what better way to win than to have the biggest play of the night come on a Matthews shot after a Mitch Marner pass. The two giant names being the two largest Leafs figures of Game 6.

Marner stole the puck in the neutral zone in the third period, slid a hard pass to a moving Matthews, who drew it back, fired it and beat Bobrovsky through the legs.

And these were among the plays that kept the Maple Leafs in the lead: In the final minute of the game, with Florida playing with an empty net for an extra skater, and the Leafs hanging on, Marner won a battle in the defensive zone and flipped the puck out of trouble. A few seconds after that, Matthews blocked a shot in the defensive zone, the puck bouncing to Marner, who flipped it out once again.

The two who combined to score the game-winner, to kill those two early penalties that could have gotten the Leafs in trouble, were there in the final minute of play keeping the lead safe. They were there in the first minute and last minute.

Playing offence. Playing defence. Doing whatever it takes to find victory. It wasn’t just them on Friday night. But it started with them. And the victory was an enormous team effort for the Leafs. The key word being team.

Joseph Woll, who started the series as the backup goalie, who was pulled in Game 5 and publicly questioned, wound up with the shutout. It wasn’t an overly difficult shutout — he was called upon 22 times — but it was clean work for Woll, who didn’t face a lot of second shots.

He made the saves he needed to make. He made the saves Bobrovsky didn’t make. And now there’s one game left to play in this series, stars on stars, goaltenders on goaltenders, so much to play for, and so much at stake.

Hockey teams that win on the road in the playoffs, that shut their opponents down and out, don’t do it because one or two men make a difference. They do it because almost everyone does.

Max Domi, who has had a rough series for the Leafs and taken the kind of penalties that make coaches cringe, had an exceptional game on Friday night. He was all over the ice, making defensive play after defensive play — something he’s not exactly known for — and then it was his assist that began the play for Pacioretty’s goal at 14:17 of the third period.

Domi found a streaking Bobby McMann and McMann then found a cutting Pacioretty whose backhand beat Bobrovsky for the second score. The Domi pass was exceptional and needed, as it was for McMann, who has struggled to find offence for months now, but found the rather handy Pacioretty, who has an offensive mind that few on the Leafs can equal.

Pacioretty played just more than 11 minutes Friday night, one minute less than Domi, two minutes fewer than McMann. Four minutes less than the much-criticized Scott Laughton, who did all kinds of sound work against the Panthers in Game 6.