Joshua made it 2-0 at 7:54. He took a pass from McMann down low on the rush and shot over Bobrovsky’s right pad. Joshua has scored in two straight games after having no goals in his previous 14.
“It was a big win for us, the ability to hold onto the lead. … There had been a couple games where we had a lead and let it slip away,” Joshua said. “We need to keep it going.”
Reinhart, playing his 800th NHL game, cut it to 2-1 with a short-handed goal at 14:43 of the second period. After winning a puck battle in the left corner, Anton Lundell found Reinhart alone in the slot, and he waited out Woll and beat him over the glove with a shot from the bottom of the right circle.
That was all the scoring the Panthers would get.
“There is some frustration, for sure,” Reinhart said when asked what the mood among his teammates was. “A lot of things have gone right for us over the past few years, and that certainly adds to it. But we have been in this position before. It is going to be guys in the room and guys who are healthy who are going to bring us out of it.”
Scott Laughton gave Toronto a 3-1 lead at 12:18 of the third period with his first goal of the season, scoring from in front of the net on a puck that bounced off the skate of Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad.
“Big moment for our line to try and get something going for us,” Laughton said. “Late in the game, close game, just a full team effort. We played quick, made it hard to create, and [Woll] was great. We’re going to have to continue to play like that. That’s the recipe for success; we play like that, we will win a lot more games.”