Mackie Samoskevich and Eetu Luostarinen each tallied three points to lead the visiting Florida Panthers to a 6-2 defeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Samoskevich restored the Panthers’ (38-38-4, 80 points) two-goal lead after William Nylander nabbed back-to-back goals in the second period to cut the deficit to 3-2. A.J. Greer chipped in with a goal and an assist. Tomas Nosek had two goals.
Joseph Woll stopped 19 of 23 shots for Toronto (32-34-14, 78 points) while Daniil Tarasov turned away 17 of 19 for Florida.
Luostarinen opened the scoring just 23 seconds in, spinning into Samoskevich’s rebound and beating Woll from a tight angle. Cole Reinhardt made it 2-0 five minutes later.
Tarasov denied Max Domi on a breakaway on what was the Maple Leafs’ first shot of the game 4:33 in. Toronto went on to record just six shots in the opening frame.
Nosek ended a 75-game scoring drought to make it 3-0 early in the second period through a high screen. Fellow Czech countrymate Marek Alscher tallied his first NHL point on the play, having left the puck for Nosek on the sideboards.
Nylander responded with two markers later in the period. He outwaited Panthers defenseman Tobias Bjornfot’s sprawling defensive effort and sniped one past Tarasov glove-side on the power play. He nicked the puck off Vinnie Hinostroza and doubled his tally with a goal from nearly the same spot in the high slot 2:21 later.
Samoskevich made it 4-2 early in the third period with a one-timer off a low, quick feed from A.J. Greer. Greer and Nosek added empty netters.
Head coaches Paul Maurice and Craig Berube continued to plug rookies into their injury-plagued lineups. Center Wilmer Skoog made his debut for the Panthers, as did defenseman William Villeneuve for the Maple Leafs.
The Panthers snapped a four-game losing streak while the Maple Leafs extended their losing skid to five.
