Panthers hammer Maple Leafs to grab 3-2 series lead

The Florida Panthers dominated the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 Wednesday night to grab a 3-2 series lead.

The victory was Florida's third straight and puts the Panthers on the brink of the Eastern Conference Final for the third consecutive year.

Aaron Ekblad opened the scoring in the first period, and the Panthers added three more in the middle frame to blow the game open. A.J. Greer's third-period tally to make it 5-0 chased Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll from the contest.

"Right from the start we just kept doing the things that make us successful," captain Aleksander Barkov said, per Sportsnet. "Just battle hard, make simple plays. Keep the focus in the moment, that's what we've been good at the last three games."

He continued, "(The) score doesn't matter, we want to keep playing our game. We wanted to stay in their zone as much as possible. ... I think overall it was a good 60 minutes by us."

Nick Robertson scored with 1:06 left in regulation to snap Sergei Bobrovsky's shutout streak at 143:25, which established a new Panthers playoff record. The Maple Leafs hadn't scored since the third period of Game 3 before Robertson found the back of the net.

Toronto's home crowd showered the Maple Leafs in boos, and a jersey was thrown on the ice during the third period. The Leafs are now 3-10 on home ice in Games 5 through 7 dating back to 2017, according to Sportsnet Stats. Toronto's been outscored 40-22 in those contests.

Game 6 is scheduled for Friday night in Florida.