Nosek scores twice, Panthers cruise past Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- Tomas Nosek scored twice for the Florida Panthers, who built a three-goal lead by the early part of the second period and went on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

The goals were Nosek’s first and second of the season in his 20th game. He did not make his season debut until March 3 after sustaining a knee injury that required surgery last off-season. He had not scored in his past 75 games, his last goal coming on November 7, 2024.

“I think we played pretty decent game today, solid and I’m just happy that I got two goals,” Nosek said. “It’s been a long time so I’m not going to lie, it feels good.

“It’s been a roller coaster season and tough times sometimes. It’s been a long time without games and you’re wondering what’s going to happen when you come back and I’m just happy I did it on time before the end of the season.”

Eetu Luostarinen and Mackie Samoskevich each had a goal and two assists, A.J. Greer had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 17 saves for the Panthers (38-38-4), who are 1-3-1 in their past five.

“It’s how we treat each other and how we treat the games, respect the games. I think we did that here tonight…,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said.  “We’re trying treat the game with respect and the players, how they talk on the bench, how they talk in practice. They’ve got to come to work, they just can’t just show up and go through it.

“That’s as good as we can play with the guys we have. We played our butts off tonight and I’m really proud of them.”

William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 19 saves for the Maple Leafs (32-34-14), who are 0-4-1 in their past five.

Both teams have been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention.

The Panthers went up 1-0 23 seconds into the first period when Luostarinen got to a rebound off the end boards, spun and banked a shot off Woll’s right leg from just above the goalline.

Tarasov kept it 1-0 at 4:34 when he stopped Max Domi on a breakaway.

“I’m just trying to be simple and give it a chance,” Tarasov said. “I stopped him in the right time and then we scored a second goal after this. I just feel like I should make that save to keep it a one-goal lead.”

Cole Reinhardt made it 2-0 at 5:32 when he got a step on Jake McCabe, cut to the net and jammed a shot that went off Woll before banking in off McCabe.

Nosek pushed it to 3-0 at 1:32 of the second period when he stepped into the slot from the blue line and shot over Woll’s glove.

“We got down 2-0, two lucky goals by them but I thought our second period was our best period,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We gave up that third one, we shouldn’t be giving that goal up. We made a push, got some opportunities late but we didn’t execute on our chances. We had three breakaways tonight and didn’t get a sniff on any of them.”

The Maple Leafs cut it to 3-1 at 10:55 on the power play. Nylander collected a rebound, skated up to the high slot and shot past Tarasov’s glove.

Nylander scored again at 13:16 to pull Toronto to within one when he stole the puck from Vinnie Hinostroza and shot past Tarasov’s glove from the slot, making it 3-2.

“All these games are weird when you’re out of the playoffs,” Nylander said. “As of late I think we’ve been competing good but tonight, I think they were competing better than us.”

Samoskevich made it 4-2 at 4:13 of the third period, one-timing the return pass on a give-and-go with Greer in the slot.

Woll is 0-3-1 in his past four starts while allowing 19 goals.

“From my perspective, I’m trying to approach it like any other game and not get too concerned with where we’re at but at the same time, I’m obviously not very happy with the results recently,” Woll said. “I try to stay very focused on the process but at the same time, would much rather be winning here.”

Greer shot into an empty net at 15:56 to make it 5-2 and Nosek added another empty-net goal at 18:07 for the 6-2 final.

“We try to play every game like it’s playoffs, it doesn’t matter what it is, we try to play our best and build something that will make us good and to our identity,” Nosek said.

NOTES: Panthers forward Wilmer Skoog, 26, made his NHL debut. He was plus-1 with two shots in 15:49… Maple Leafs defenseman William Villeneuve, 24, made his NHL debut, playing 18:45. He was selected No. 122 by the Maple Leafs in the 2020 NHL Draft and played 224 games with Toronto of the American Hockey League from 2020-26.