Panthers dominate Maple Leafs in Game 7, advance to Eastern Conference final
The Florida Panthers build their game for moments like Sunday — moments when everything is on the line, moments when they need to dig deep, moments when they have to impose their will.
Game 7 moments.
“Our game is built on wearing teams down over the course of a seven-game series, over the course of a game,” star winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “It might not show in the first five minutes, but hopefully it shows in overtime or late in the third. Our game is built for Game 7. We’ve done six games of hopefully hard work and physicality that’ll pay off tonight.”
Did it ever.
The Panthers imposed their will on the Toronto Maple Leafs, eventually found the back of the net and kept grinding until the final whistle.
Final score from Game 7 of this second-round Stanley Cup playoffs series at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena: Panthers 6, Maple Leafs 1.
The Panthers advance to the Eastern Conference final for a third consecutive year and will face the Carolina Hurricanes for a spot in the Stanley Cup Final. Game 1 of that best-of-7 series will be Tuesday at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“Game 7s are players’ games,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We’re at Game 94 this year. There’s not much coaching now. After 93 games coming in, there’s nothing new. There’s no tactics on this.”
So it’s only fitting, then, the Panthers put together a prototypical Panthers performance when they needed to the most. Aggressive defense led to timely offense. They stymied the Maple Leafs after taking the lead. And Sergei Bobrovsky made big saves when it counted.
A recipe they’ve shown is successful in the playoffs time and time again.
They weren’t fazed in any sense of the word knowing it all came down to this. Just like they weren’t fazed when they went down 0-2 in the series or when Toronto shut them out in Game 6 to force the winner-take-all Game 7.
“We try to play a heavy, in-your-face style,” Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said. “Try to wear them down. ... When the games get tighter, it’s that simple game that we try to play. When the nerves are there, when the stakes are the highest, it’s easier playing that way than trying to play a skill game or trying to play any differently.”
After a first period that saw Florida start out strong, Toronto counter and ultimately end up 0-0 at the first intermission, the Panthers scored three goals in just under six-and-a-half minutes in the second period to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Seth Jones made it 1-0 3:15 into the middle frame when he took a pass chipped in from the neutral zone by Evan Rodrigues and fired a wrist shot past Joseph Woll while on a two-on-one rush with Reinhart.
Just over four minutes later, it was Anton Lundell pushing the Panthers’ lead to 2-0 when he grabbed a rebound from an Eetu Luostarinen shot and scored from the slot.
And then Jonah Gadjovich made it 3-0 9:39 into the second period after A.J. Greer corralled his own rebound and passed the puck to his linemate, who buried the puck into essentially an open net.
“It’s been such a hard series,” Lundell said. “We knew it was going to be a hard game today as well, and that we needed good game for for the win. We trusted we were going to get that chance. And then finally, we got three goals and got momentum off that.”
But before the flurry, they needed Bobrovsky once again to come up big. A sloppy final 10 minutes in the first period led to the Maple Leafs getting a slew of scoring chances, including breakaways by William Nylander, Scott Laughton and Steven Lorentz. Bobrovsky stood tall, as he has in so many big playoff moments the past three years, to keep the game tied at 0-0 before the Panthers struck.
Bobrovsky ultimately stopped 19 of 20 shots he faced. Over the final four games of the series, Bobrovsky made 88 saves on 92 shots on goal for a .957 save percentage in that span.
“You stick with your game,” Bobrovsky said. “You see what’s coming and try to give yourself the best chance to stop it.”
And when Toronto did finally score, with Max Domi beating Bobrovsky with a wrist shot from up close 2:07 into the third period, the Panthers quickly took the momentum back with Luostarinen scoring 47 seconds later.
Reinhart then added a goal of his own with 10:36 left to play, and Marchand — who is now 5-0 against the Maple Leafs in Game 7s in his career — scored on an empty net without three minutes left to play to cap scoring.
And now it’s back to a familiar place in the Eastern Conference final against a familiar opponent in the Hurricanes, who the Panthers swept in 2023 to reach the Stanley Cup final.
This story was originally published May 18, 2025 at 10:16 PM.
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