Florida Panthers Back in Hunt for Home Ice After Losing Streak Ends

SUNRISE — The Toronto Maple Leafs may have first place in the Atlantic Division pretty much locked, but the Florida Panthers gave them nothing on Tuesday night.

They certainly did not give them first place in the Atlantic Division.

After the Panthers snapped a five-game losing streak by beating the Leafs 3-1, things have tightened among the Atlantic’s top teams.

Not only did the Maple Leafs not clinch home ice in the opening round as they could have with the win, but the Panthers created some separation between themselves and the Ottawa Senators.

Ottawa is trying to catch Florida and take over third in the division. The Senators did themselves no favors by losing in Columbus.

The Senators still have an outside chance of overtaking the Florida, which would push the Panthers down to the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Tuesday, however, the Panthers took care of business in Sunrise.

The defending Stanley Cup champs do seem to care about the end of the regular season, after all.

“We needed to win a game because we played pretty well here in this stretch, just haven’t had much go our way,’’ Paul Maurice said.

“Through two periods, it looked like those games where we just weren’t finishing around the net. I thought we played a smart game, played true to the identity. We did what we needed to do to win.”

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If things stay the way they are now, Florida will meet Tampa Bay in Round 1; Toronto will meet Ottawa.

The Battle of Florida here, the Battle of Ontario up there.

If Toronto and Florida both win in the first round, they would meet in Round 2.

That works, right?

Tuesday was a tight win for the Panthers — it was 2-1 until Carter Verhaeghe scored into an empty net.

The Leafs said they were not happy with their performance, especially given the possibility of the two meeting up again in the playoffs.

Florida outshot Toronto 37-18 margin. The Panthers also had 73 shot attempts to just 26 for the Leafs, and also were the more physical team per the official hit list of 43-29 in favor of the home team.

Although the original stat sheet had Florida winning 71 percent of the face-offs, a number coach Craig Berube quoted postgame, the off-ice officials changed it to a 69 percent advantage for the Panthers.

Nice.

“They wanted it more than us,” Berube said. “It started in the face-off circle, and they are at 71 percent tonight. To me, it comes down to competitiveness and digging in. Seemed like they were a more desperate team.’’

One of those face-off wins directly led to Gus Forsling’s goal to kick things off in the first.

Anton Lundell cleanly beat John Tavares and got the puck back to Forsling who ripped a whistler past Toronto goalie Joseph Woll.

“That one’s on me,” Tavares said. “I think you understand tendencies of guys you go against and what they do. I was anticipating something on his end and I just completely mistimed it and misread it. It’s on me. Obviously, you can’t lose them clean like that and give an opportunity in the middle of the ice.”

The Leafs had won eight of their previous 10.

Had they won in regulation Tuesday, Toronto would have guaranteed home ice advantage in the first two rounds as the new Atlantic Division champs.

With Florida’s win, the Panthers and Lightning have an outside chance of overtaking them.

The Panthers had lost five in a row and were hearing rumblings of a ‘tank job,’ as if they would prefer to meet Toronto rather than Tampa Bay in the opening round.

Not so, was the company line.

Maurice explained it was essential to heal and rest players in order to get ready for the playoffs.

Any thoughts the Panthers were trying to game the system ended with Tuesday’s efforts.

Florida can still gain home ice by overtaking Tampa Bay, which maintains a two-point lead over the Panthers with an extra game to play.

When the Leafs and Lightning play tonight, Panthers fans should be rooting for Toronto.

The Panthers are not going to catch the Leafs; but they could overtake the Lightning and get home ice advantage in Round 1.

Tuesday, the Panthers were close to full strength — and there was no doubt this was a different team with Forsling, Sasha Barkov, and Sam Reinhart back in the lineup after missing Sunday’s loss in Detroit.

Berube had positive words for the Panthers after the game.

“We didn’t generate a lot,’’ he said, “because they won all the battles in the offensive zone.’’

Detroit is up next for the Panthers on Thursday.

The game could have meant something had the Red Wings been able to beat Montreal, but that one was a four-point swing and put Detroit eight points behind the Canadiens for the final spot, with only five games remaining.

They’re done.

But, perhaps Detroit can play spoiler.

The Panthers are back in the race for home ice, at least in the first round, and looked more like themselves on Tuesday.

“We did a lot of good things, we know how good a team they are,’’ Barkov said. “We wanted to play really hard and really smart. I thought we did a good job of that.”

ON DECK: GAME No. 79

DETROIT RED WINGS at FLORIDA PANTHERS 

• When: Thursday, 7 p.m.
• Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• Streaming: Panthers+; ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5 FM-2; WBZT 1230-AM (West Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); WCZR 101.7-FM (Treasure Coast); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL/Panthers App
• Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-125); Puck line (-1.5, +180); Over/Under 5.5 (-130/+105)
• Last Season: Florida won 3-1
• This Season (Red Wings Lead 2-0)— At Detroit: Red Wings 2, Panthers 1 (April 6). At Florida: Red Wings 5, Panthers 2 (Jan. 16); Thursday.
• All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 39-21-7, 5 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Buffalo Sabres, 6 p.m.