Maple Leafs avoid elimination with Game 4 win over Panthers

The Maple Leafs aren’t done yet.

Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist as Toronto beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 in a must-win Game 4 to cut the deficit to 3-1 in the teams’ second-round series on Wednesday.

William Nylander also scored for the visiting Leafs. Rookie goaltender Joseph Woll made 24 saves in his first postseason start with Ilya Samsonov sidelined with injury. Marner and Nylander broke seven-game goal droughts.

Seeking to become the fifth team in NHL history to climb out of a 3-0 hole, Toronto gets at least a 48-hour breather and will host Game 5 of the best-of-seven matchup on Friday at Scotiabank Arena.

Game 6, if necessary, would be Sunday in South Florida.

CLOCK | Marner scores a decisive goal to help the Maple Leafs force Game 5:

Marner posts winner as Leafs extend series with Panthers to Game 5

Mitch Marner’s third-period goal was enough to give Toronto a 2-1 Game 4 victory over Florida, forcing a Game 5 in Toronto on Friday.

The Leafs got a big chance at 3:28 of the second period on their first power play.

Toronto winger Michael Bunting tried to put the puck behind the Florida netting, but the referee shot into the corner and hit Nylander, who smacked the puck off the post, in front of Bobrovsky and into his first goal of the series and third of the playoffs for a 1-0 lead.

The Panthers goalie made a great save at Bunting in another Toronto lead later in the period. David Kampf was then stopped twice in the tight.

Woll, who got the call after Samsonov was injured in Game 3, held the fort at the other end before Florida’s Radko Gudas crushed Kampf after the whistle on a delayed Toronto penalty. The Leafs striker went to the locker room, but returned for the third period.

John Tavares had an excellent chance to make it 2-0 late in the second, but Bobrovsky was there to deny the Toronto captain, just as he did in Game 2.

Woll made a fine save on Josh Mahura’s bunt five minutes into the third before Marner, a lightning rod for criticism after a forgettable Game 3, made it 2-0 at 10:03 of the third when his shot from away through a misled crowd. Bobrovsky for his third.

Reinhart, who scored in overtime of Game 3, made it 2-1 with 7:47 left on a Florida power play that barely crossed the goal line in a fight for his sixth.

But the visitors held on late to force the series back to Toronto.

The Leafs’ all-star quartet of Auston Matthews, Nylander, Tavares and Marner combined for zero goals in the first three games of the series.

With Wednesday’s win, Toronto delayed the start of a summer of inevitable questions about coaching, management and roster-building that would have come with a disastrous second round after the organization’s best playoff run in nearly two decades.

Toronto finally broke through to the postseason for the first time since 2004, including six straight series losses to Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Morgan Rielly, as the club topped the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.

All those good feelings, including the wild street celebrations in the hockey-mad city, faded in less than two weeks with three losses that included a dismal showing by some of the team’s best players in Game 3.

Now the Leafs have a bit of life.

The Panthers, meanwhile, saw their franchise-record playoff winning streak end at six games, but will have three more chances to defeat Toronto on the heels of accomplishing the same feat against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins in seven. games after trailing. that series 3-1.