Sergei Bobrovsky shuts out Maple Leafs, and the Panthers have evened up the series
No matter what gets thrown his way, Sergei Bobrovsky almost always finds a way to remain calm. The veteran goaltender’s stoic presence serves as a soothing backbone for this Florida Panthers team. No matter the stakes or his personal performance on any given night, Bobrovsky has gotten to a point where his demeanor never really wavers.
“He’s so solid back there, and we trust him,” defenseman Gustav Forsling said. “It gives everyone a little calm.”
Bobrovsky rose to the occasion on Sunday at perhaps the most important time so far this postseason, stopping all 23 shots he faced from the Toronto Maple Leafs as the Panthers won 2-0 in Game 4 of their second-round series at Amerant Bank Arena.
With the win, Florida has evened the best-of-7 series at 2-2 after dropping the first two games of the set. Game 5 is at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday, with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m.
“The bigger games are ahead,” Bobrovsky said.
In the latest big game, Bobrovsky stood tall, as he has so many times for the Panthers in the playoffs the past few years.
Sunday was Bobrovsky’s second shutout of this playoff run, with the other coming in Game 2 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 1.
This is Bobrovsky’s second consecutive playoffs with multiple shutouts, and he now has at least one shutout in round of the playoffs in his career. He is now the seventh active goaltender with at least five career playoff shutouts, joining Marc-Andre Fleury (16), Jonathan Quick (10), Andrei Vasilevskiy (seven), Cam Talbot (six), Matt Murray (six) and Petr Mrazek (five).
On Friday, seven of the 22 shots he faced were high-danger shots, according to the advanced hockey statistics website Natural Stat Trick. His defense clamped down a lot in front of him, especially early, and limited Toronto’s chances off the rush.
But in big moments, Bobrovsky was there.
“You can totally take him for granted, which is what happens to all elite goaltenders,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I can speak for myself that if he has a game that you don’t think is Sergei Bobrovsky-like, I spend no time wondering if the next one is going to be like that. ... He’s his own little leadership committee there. He just goes in and gives us so many consistent looks.”
Added Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe: “He’s such a leader back there. He keeps us so composed. He’s such a great goalie. I wouldn’t want to play in front of any other goalie. Such a good guy, too. I love Bobby.”
Verhaeghe gave Bobrovsky all the support he would need with a first-period power-play goal on assists from Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov with 4:15 left in the opening period.
Verhaeghe now has 30 career postseason goals. He is one of 36 active players to have at least that many. Since the 2021 playoffs, when Verhaeghe joined the Panthers, he is one of just five active players with 30 playoff goals. Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon, Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid are the others.
“We’ve had some pretty poor starts in the series,” Verhaeghe said, “and that was one thing we wanted to get better at. Getting the early goal definitely helped.”
Florida, which dominated possession throughout the game, had multiple opportunities to extend the lead, but Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll was dominant in his own right.
The insurance goal finally came with 7:50 left to play when Sam Bennett won a race for a loose puck, dangled the puck on his stick, deked Woll in front of the net and fired a shot into the net.
“I was looking at all my options,” said Bennett, who has a team-leading five goals so far in the playoffs. “I was looking at passing first and then I was shooting. I just didn’t see either of those open up, and was able to just hold onto it and wait him out a little bit, and then it was able to put it in.”
It put the Panthers in a favorable position. Just three days ago, they were on the ropes in the series after losing on both Monday and Wednesday.
And then they rallied for an overtime win on Friday. And then they played their most complete game on Sunday.
And all of a sudden, the series is tied with three games left.
“We settled down at home,” Bennett said. “We played two much better games. It’s now the best-of-3. It’s gonna be a fun end of the series for sure.”
Evan Rodrigues injury
The Panthers played most of the third period down a forward after Evan Rodrigues took a high hit from Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson about five minutes into the final frame.
Rodrigues did not return to the game, and Maurice said the forward will need “evaluations” to get a grasp on his injury.
Maurice primarily used Tomas Nosek, who had been centering the fourth line, in Rodrigues’ spot to keep the rest of the forward lines intact.
Panthers take exception to Domi hit on Barkov
In the final seconds of the game, Maple Leafs forward Max Domi boarded Barkov while a slew of players were competing for the puck.
It’s safe to say the Panthers didn’t care for the hit.
“He’s trying to take a run at Barky in there,” Bennett said. “The boys did a good job jumping in there and sticking up for Barky. It’s been a physical series, so I expect more of that.”
Maurice, as he normally does, did not give an opinion on the hit one way or another.
“I think the league looks at those things very closely,” Maurice said, “especially at that point in the game.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2025 at 10:16 PM.
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