Badly in need of a strong outing, the Florida Panthers dug deep on Wednesday and were pleased with the results.
Florida pulled out an impressive 5-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, heading into the Thanksgiving holiday feeling good after ending their four-game losing streak.
Fresh off a strong penalty kill in the game’s opening minutes, Florida was given a power play shortly after, and they would take advantage.
A strong shift in Toronto’s zone ended with Aaron Ekblad feeding Sasha Barkov for a one-timer from the right circle to put the Cats in front.
Less than a minute later, Mackie Samoskevich picked up his own rebound after a wraparound attempt and beat Anthony Stolarz to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead at the 5:36 mark.