Jonathan Marchessault scored twice to spark the Florida Panthers to a huge, potentially season-saving, 7-2 rout over the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday night at the BB&T Center.
The Panthers helped themselves with the win, but the out of town scoreboard failed to provide further assistance, with the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders each picking up overtime victories to reach 77 points. Last night’s results have the Cats six points out of a playoff spot, a one-point improvement over their prior predicament. Florida has a game in hand on both the Bolts and Isles.
Aleskander Barkov opened the scoring just 18 seconds into the action to set the tone for the rest of the night.