Maple Leafs beat Panthers, clinch spot in 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs

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The Maple Leafs have booked their spot in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.

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What was expected became reality on Wednesday night when the Leafs, who needed a point against the Florida Panthers to clinch a post-season berth, beat their Atlantic Division rivals 3-2 at Scotiabank Arena.

“It’s a long grind,” John Tavares said. “It’s a special thing to play for the Stanley Cup. We’re excited to have the opportunity to again, we earned our ticket there, and we’ll continue to work to finish as high as we can and make the most of the opportunity.”

The Auston Matthews line came through in third period for Toronto.

Mitch Marner scored at 10:50 when Matthews spotted him to Sergei Bobrovsky’s left. Without hesitation, Marner fired the puck past the goaltender’s blocker for his 24th goal.

At 15:09, Marner sent Matthew Knies in on a breakaway and Knies deked to his backhand for his 26th goal and game-winner.

With under three minutes left, Sam Reinhart scored a power-play goal for the Panthers.

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The Leafs will compete in the playoffs for the ninth consecutive year, the longest current streak in the National Hockey League.

Toronto opened a three-point lead on idle Tampa Bay for first place in the Atlantic. Florida is in third, four points behind the Leafs.

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Goalie Anthony Stolarz, who finished with 29 saves, made a difficult save on Panthers defenceman Niko Mikkola with 7 1/2 minutes to play.

The Leafs lost centre David Kampf to an upper-body injury. He didn’t play in the third period. Defenceman Jake McCabe went to the room with 70 seconds remaining in the game. Coach Craig Berube didn’t have an update on either player after the game.

The Panthers didn’t have captain Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, who are nursing injuries, and suspended defenceman Aaron Ekblad.

The Leafs were outshot 16-5 in the second period but managed to head into the intermission locked in a 1-1 tie.

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After neither team got on the scoreboard in the first, Florida opened the scoring at 1:03 of the second period. The Panthers kept control of the puck in the offensive zone after a Chris Tanev minor expired and scored when defenceman Gustav Forsling unleashed a one-timer on Stolarz, going high on the glove side.

Tavares brought the Leafs even at 11:31 when he re-directed a William Nylander slap-pass into the net behind Bobrovsky.

It was Tavares’ 36th goal of the season, tying his fourth-highest total of his NHL career. If Tavares gets to 39 goals, he will have his second-most goals in one NHL season. Tavares’ high is 47, done in 2018-19, his first year with the Leafs after signing a seven-year contract in free agency.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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