• Associated Press

May 10, 2023, 11:01 PM ET

SUNRISE, Fla. — There was an unintentional assist from one of the referees. There was a nearly flawless performance from a rookie goalie making his first playoff start. And there was no sense of panic.

Toronto is going home — for another game, not to start the offseason.

He was 7:47 away from pulling it off.

Reinhart — who had the OT winner in Game 3 — took a quick pass from Matthew Tkachuk and found a way to just get the puck through Woll’s leg pads for a power-play score, cutting Toronto’s lead to 2-1. The Leafs called their time-out immediately after the goal, just to calm everyone down.

“I thought we were playing a really good period to that point,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It really was to give our guys a breath. … I didn’t have to say much.”

Woll didn’t have to do the job alone, either. Toronto blocked 21 shots as a team.

“We’re just going to keep fighting,” Leafs forward John Tavares said.

Nylander’s surname is pronounced KNEE-lander, which seemed fitting on the opening goal.

Toronto went more than five full periods — 107 minutes and 46 seconds, to be exact, going back to late in the second period of Game 2 — without a power play until Florida’s Eetu Luostarinen got called for high-sticking the Leafs’ Michael Bunting early in the second period.

And they cashed in, thanks to the hockey gods who oversee crazy bounces.

Bunting tried dumping the puck around the net from the right-wing boards, only to have it bounce off the knee of referee Jon McIsaac as he tried to get out of the way. It skipped to the front of the net, where Nylander knocked it past Bobrovsky for a 1-0 Toronto lead.

“A bit unlucky bounce, but it is what it is,” Bobrovsky said. “Again, I thought we had a good game. We compete. We fight. We played a solid defensive game. They are a good team as well, so that’s the score tonight.”

It was the first goal of the series for Toronto’s big four players of Nylander, Auston Matthews, Tavares and Marner.

“It’s not going to get easier,” Nylander said.

The score stayed 1-0 going into the third, though Toronto had a big chance to go up two in the final seconds of the second period. Tavares got loose down the center of the ice on a breakaway, but Bobrovsky knocked away his attempt to the stick side to keep Florida within one.

Marner made it 2-0 with 9:57 left, and the Leafs held on. They haven’t been swept in a playoff series since 1980 — a best-of-five against the Minnesota North Stars — and not in a best-of-seven since Montreal ousted them in four games in 1979.

“We were right there to the end,” Florida forward Sam Bennett said. “And that’s playoff hockey.”