Maple Leafs post wire-to-wire win over struggling Panthers
Matthew Knies had a goal and an assist in his 200th career game Tuesday night and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Florida Panthers 4-1.
Easton Cowan, Auston Matthews and Bobby McMann (empty net) also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have won three of four. Matthews has six goals in his past three games. Joseph Woll made 31 saves.
Carter Verhaeghe scored for the Panthers, who have lost three of four. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots.
Bobrovsky foiled Matthews on a breakaway against Florida's overly aggressive penalty-killing during a Toronto power play nearly six minutes into the first period.
Verhaeghe hit the crossbar with a shot at 13:07 of the first while on the power play.
Cowan tapped in Nicholas Robertson's pass to the goalmouth at 19:36 of the first period. It completed a slick combination with Nicolas Roy's diagonal pass reaching Robertson in the left circle.
Toronto took a 2-0 lead 42 seconds into the second period when Knies converted a pass from Troy Stecher.
Knies did most of the work weaving with the puck across the front of the net to slip a pass back to Matthews, who scored his 422nd career goal at 4:01 of the second on a close-range snap shot. Matthews was honored before the game for becoming the Maple Leafs' all-time leading goal-scorer when he scored No. 421 on Saturday to surpass Mats Sundin.
Florida started the third period on a power play, but could not solve Woll. They went on the power play again at 2:15 but failed to break through.
Verhaeghe scored at 11:38 of the third period. He knocked down a clearing effort by Woll and scored on a sharp-angled shot from behind the goal line to the right of the net that deflected in off the goaltender.
McMann scored into an empty net at 19:52.
Florida's Brad Marchand did not appear for the third period with a possible lower-body injury.
Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe (lower-body injury) was out while Brandon Carlo returned to the defense from foot surgery and played 17:41.