NHL-Panthers move on while Leafs Stanley Cup drought continues

Nick Cousins scored the overtime winner as the Florida Panthers unlikely Stanley Cup run continued with a 3-2 victory that brought the Toronto Maple Leafs season to a predictable end on Friday. Few in the NHL world expected much from a Florida team that only clinched a playoff berth with two days left in the regular.

Nick Cousins scored the overtime winner as the Florida Panthers unlikely Stanley Cup run continued with a 3-2 victory that brought the Toronto Maple Leafs season to a predictable end on Friday.

Few in the NHL world expected much from a Florida team that only clinched a playoff berth with two days left in the regular. But the Panthers have been the post-season surprise package, eliminating the top-seeded Boston Bruins in the opening round and closing out the best-of-seven series with Toronto 4-1.

Florida advances to the Eastern conference final for just the second time and the first time since 1996 where they will face off against the Carolina Hurricanes. For the Maple Leafs and their long suffering fans a 56-year Stanley Cup drought will continue.

The Leafs did manage to reach the second round for the first time since 2004, but that singular accomplishment seemed minor for a team rated a Stanley Cup favourite. An original six team rich in history and one of the National Hockey League's most valuable franchises, the Maple Leafs have stumbled through decades of frustration with this year's failure expected to produce a turbulent offseason of major change.

After losing the first three games to Florida, history was against Toronto with only four teams having ever climbed out of 0-3 holes, the Leafs the first in the 1942 Stanley Cup final and the Los Angeles Kings the most recent in the 2014 Western Conference opening round. The Panthers knew well that it is not impossible to overcome 3-1 series deficit, having done so themselves in the opening round against the Bruins, a team coming off a record 65-win campaign.

Florida was on the scoreboard first on Friday with a powerplay goal from Aaron Ekblad and added another before the end of the period from Carter Verhaeghe to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission, turning the packed arena into a morgue. Morgan Rielly would bring the crowd back to life in the second, beating Sergei Bobrovsky from long range and then had them roaring again when he appeared to score the equalizer late in the period cutting across goalmouth and jamming the puck over the line.

But a lengthy video review would rule no goal, with the crowd delaying the game further showering the ice with debris. The clock was ticking down on Leafs season when, with under five minutes left in regulation, William Nylander flew down the wing cut towards the net and beat Bobrovsky to the shortside, sending the contest to overtime.

Toronto could not complete the comeback, Cousins getting the winner with 4:28 left to play in the first overtime.