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We’re 10 days into the second-round series between the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs.
After four games, we’re right back where we started, with both teams even and looking to gain an advantage on an extremely talented and dangerous opponent.
Toronto appeared to be in control after two games, winning the first two matchups at Scotiabank Arena before the series moved to South Florida.
The Panthers punched back on home ice, picking up a pair of victories in Sunrise to knot the series back up at two games apiece.
Now the scene has shifted back to Toronto, where one team will push the other to the brink of elimination with a victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
It will be interesting to see if the extra day off will help cool tempers of both teams after the contentious ending to Game 4 on Sunday, highlighted by a dangerous hit from behind on Sasha Barkov by Max Domi.
Domi was given a five-minute major at the time and subsequently fined $5,000, the maximum allowed under the CBA, for the illegal boarding hit.
Fortunately for Florida, Barkov popped right back up and is fine, according to Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice.
To be fair, the hit was just the latest in a series that has seen several jarring collisions between two divisional rivals facing each other in the second round for the second time in three postseasons.
One thing there has not been many of is low-scoring games.
Saturday’s 2-0 win by Florida was a far different outcome than the first three games of the series that saw the Cats and Leafs combine to score 25 goals.
It’s no coincidence that the first low-scoring game in the series went Florida’s way.
If Maurice had his way, all the Panthers;’ games would follow that ‘2-1 filthy’ blueprint.
We’ll see if they can keep things in their favor when they hit the ice Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena.
If they do, they’ll become the first road team to pick up a win in this series. If Florida wants to advance to their third straight conference final, they’re going to need at least one win north of the border.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Game 5 in Toronto:
Evan Rodrigues – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jonah Gadjovich
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Seth Jones
Nate Schmidt – Dmitry Kulikov
Scratches: Mackie Samoskevich, Uvis Balinskis, Nico Sturm, Jesper Boqvist, Jaycob Megna
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