Matthews helps Leafs top Panthers, force Game 7

SUNRISE, Fla. —

Florida coach Paul Maurice is 5-0 in Game 7s, including the final game of last season’s Stanley Cup Final. The Panthers are 3-1 in the ultimate game of a series – 2-0 on the road – while the Maple Leafs have lost each of their last six Game 7s. Of those, four were against Boston and now-Panthers forward Brad Marchand.

It was the 68th game of this season’s playoffs – and only the second that was 0-0 after 40 minutes. The other was Wednesday night, when Edmonton wound up eliminating Vegas with a 1-0 victory in overtime in Game 5 of that Western Conference semifinal series.

Toronto had five goals in Game 1, four more in Game 2 and had three by the early goings of the second period of Game 3. Add it up, and that was 12 in basically the first seven periods of the series.

From there, Toronto had managed basically nothing – until Matthews broke through.

The Toronto captain was 0 for 31 on shots against Florida this season, including the regular season. Bobrovsky had stopped 85 of the last 86 shot attempts he had seen in the series. And the Maple Leafs hadn’t had the lead in basically the equivalent of 3 1/2 games – 216 minutes, 30 seconds, to be precise.

But when a pass got away from Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, Matthews had a slight opening – and that was all he needed. A low shot skittered along the ice and beat Bobrovsky for a 1-0 lead with 13:40 left.