SUNRISE, Fla.—Maybe the Maple Leafs found what they’d been missing on the way to Friday’s do-or-die Game 6.
As head coach Craig Berube reeled off an inventory of areas in need of improvement in the wake of Wednesday’s humiliating 6-1 loss in Game 5, that sent the Leafs to South Florida on what was easy enough to cast as a death march, most of the coach’s list of demands amounted to fundamental stuff. The Leafs, Berube said, needed to skate, because they “stood around and watched” too often Wednesday. They needed to compete harder, because they were in the midst of a three-game playoff losing streak in which they were losing far too many puck battles. But beyond all that, Berube offered another piece of advice as his team attempted to stave off elimination.
“You have to enjoy the moment,” said the coach. “This is what guys play for.”
So, for all the grim whispers around this team and the cacophony of social-media doomsaying online, Friday’s morning skate in nearby Fort Lauderdale was occasionally accompanied by a joyous whoop from one smiling Leaf or another. And Friday night’s 2-0 win saw the Leafs do what their coach suggested they do: shake the weight of the world off their slumped shoulders and play freely, as though the game is fun. Because winning certainly is.
“It is fun. It’s hockey. It’s competition. It’s what you dream of as a kid growing up, playing in games that matter,” Chris Tanev, the Leafs defenceman, said before the game. “So we need to embrace the moment, enjoy the moment and live in the moment.”
Auston Matthews scored the winner in the third period as the Maple Leafs shut out the Florida Panthers 2-0 to force Game 7 in their second-round playoff series. (May 17, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
A game after Berube lamented how his team was guilty of “overthinking” as the Panthers clobbered the Leafs in a game that inspired boos at Scotiabank Arena, it was pc28that caught the Panthers flat-footed more than once with the season on the line. This was a tight game, with not much separating the sides. But ultimately it was the Leafs preying on Florida mistakes that made the difference.
Auston Matthews scored the game’s opening goal on a feed from Mitch Marner after Florida’s Aaron Ekblad bobbled a breakout pass at the home team’s blue line with 13:40 remaining in the third period. It was Matthews’s first career goal in 11 second-round playoff games, and it came on his 24th shot of the series. But it couldn’t have come at a better time.
AUSTON MATTHEWS PUTS THE LEAFS IN THE LEAD!! 😤
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet)
“I’ve had some good opportunities all series,” Matthews said. “I’m just going to continue to shoot and believe the next one’s going in.”
After Max Pacioretty beat Florida defenceman Nate Schmidt in a sprint to the net front and scored on a cross-ice pass from Bobby McMann to make it 2-0, a team that looked dispirited in Game 5 was on the way to being rejuvenated by victory in Game 6. Joseph Woll’s 22-save shutout, the first of his playoff career, sealed the deal.
The Leafs are now 7-8 when facing elimination in the Shanaplan era. That they’re 0-5 in Game 7s — hey, at least they’ve got another chance to prove themselves in Sunday’s winner-take-all contest at Scotiabank Arena.
What can the Leafs expect?
“It’s fun,” said the 36-year-old Pacioretty, who has played in four Game 7s and been on the winning side of three. “I can’t wait. We’re going to war.”
The Panthers, as defending Stanley Cup champions, will no doubt be installed as favourites. But it’s not as though Florida hasn’t shown vulnerabilities. As Panthers coach Paul Maurice said in the lead-up to Friday’s game, Florida hasn’t exactly figured out how to plug the holes that have allowed the Leafs to find good scoring chances on Sergei Bobrovsky. And for all the outcry about Toronto’s flat performance in Game 5, Maurice pointed out that, according to Florida’s analytics, it was far closer than the lopsided score suggested.
“They’re in alone on us a bunch of times,” Maurice said. “I don’t think we’re getting rid of all of (Toronto’s chances), but that’s why Sergei is what he is to us. That’s how important he is. To completely prevent it, we would have to completely change how we play, and we’re a little far down the road for that now.”
The Leafs have often played well in moments when large swaths of their fan base have written them off, and Friday’s game was no different. pc28supplied a sharp opening period, outshooting the Panthers 7-2 thanks to a defensive approach that kept the opponent to the outside and prioritized cutting off shooting lanes. The tireless Tanev blocked more shots in the first period (four) than Woll was required to stop (two). The Leafs blocked a series-high 31 shots all told, and managed the puck to near perfection.
“We played a simple game tonight, and we were determined,” Berube said. “That stands out to me more than anything — determination.”
Florida tilted the ice in the second period, when referees somehow missed the moment Florida captain Aleksander Barkov inserted his stick underneath Matthews’s visor — a clip that required Matthews to make a momentary trip down the tunnel for treatment. So it was understandable that Matthews was irate when he was called for high-sticking Ekblad in the midst of a second-period pc28power play. For all that, the game was scoreless heading into the second intermission. Patience was required, and the Leafs showed plenty. If Game 5 was lost thanks to Toronto’s paralysis by analysis, the Leafs suffered no such affliction in Game 6. That’s a step in the correct direction en route to a chance at Game 7 redemption.
Berube, who’s 2-1 in Game 7s as a head coach with a win that includes the Stanley Cup clincher with St. Louis in 2019, was asked what’s in store on Sunday.
“They’re fun,” Berube said, speaking of Game 7s. “I don’t know how players think nowadays, but when I was growing up, and all the people that I knew growing up, they always dreamed of playing in a Game 7 … Everything’s on the line. We gotta come out in Game 7 and do the same things we did (in Game 6). It’s not fancy. It’s just competing. It’s direct. It’s simple hockey.”
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