Six different players scored for the Florida Panthers, who pushed the host Toronto Maple Leafs to the brink of elimination with a 6-1 win in Game 5 on Wednesday.
Jesper Boqvist had a goal and an assist and Sam Reinhart and Nate Schmidt each had two assists for the Panthers, who lead the second-round series 3-2. Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves.
Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll allowed five goals on 25 shots before he was replaced by Matt Murray (six saves) in the third period.
Up by one after the first, Florida scored three times in the second period to blow the game open.
Dmitry Kulikov made it 2-0 at 6:08 with a one-timer from the right point that beat Woll over his left shoulder.
Boqvist pushed it to 3-0 at 10:05. Reinhart took a pass from Gustav Forsling into the zone and carried it to the circle before sending a cross-ice feed over to Boqvist, who slid it under Woll’s right skate.
Niko Mikkola extended it to 4-0 at 14:01 when he took a pass from Anton Lundell at the left point and blasted a slap shot past Woll.
A.J. Greer made it 5-0 at 6:23 of the third period, cleaning up a rebound in front, chasing Woll, and Sam Bennett’s power-play goal at 9:10 increased it to 6-0.
Nicholas Robertson broke the shutout from in the front of the net at 18:54 for the 6-1 final.
It was all Panthers in the first period, building up an 8-2 shot advantage by the midpoint of the frame. By period’s end, they had a 1-0 lead and had outshot Toronto 13-6.
Aaron Ekblad opened the scoring at 14:38, firing a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Woll over the shoulder on the far side.
William Nylander had the Maple Leafs’ best chance of the first when he stole the puck inside his own blue line and took off on a breakaway but was denied by Bobrovsky.