Mitch Marner played the hero on Wednesday night for the Maple Leafs as he scored the winner in the third period, giving Toronto a 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers, along with a 2-0 series lead.
The two sides each notched a pair of goals before Leafs forward Max Domi scored with less than three minutes remaining in the second period.
Florida evened the score at 5:33 of the third when Panthers forward Antony Lundell shovelled his third goal of the playoffs past Joseph Woll.
But that score would only remain unchanged for 17 seconds, as Marner fired a shot from the boards that found its way through traffic past a surprised Sergei Bobrovsky.
After that, it was time for Woll to step up, as he slammed the door shut on the Florida, making 25 saves to collect the victory for Toronto.
Toronto held serve in the seven-game series, which will now shift to Sunrise, Fla., on Friday night for Game 3, where the defending Stanley Cup champions will attempt to bounce back.
Leafs fans took to social media after the game to express their joy as the team seeks its first trip to the conference final since 2002.
One fan was bold enough to risk jinxing the club by pointing out their odds.
It was nice for Marner to play the hero for the Leafs, as he has taken a lot of criticism from fans of his hometown club.
Woll was called upon to play for Toronto after Anthony Stolarz was injured in Game 1 in a controversial play that saw him clipped by the elbow of Sam Bennett.
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The two goaltenders split time in the crease for Toronto throughout the season, so many fans were not surprised to see him in net for Toronto.
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DJ Kamal Mustafa
I’m DJ Kamal Mustafa, the founder and Editor-in-Chief of EMEA Tribune, a digital news platform that focuses on critical stories from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan. With a deep passion for investigative journalism, I’ve built a reputation for delivering exclusive, thought-provoking reports that highlight the region’s most pressing issues.
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