Brad Marchand haunts Leafs once again with Panthers' overtime winner in Game 3. ‘He's tenacious'
History will say, and prognosticators could have predicted, that Brad Marchand got the Florida Panthers back in the series against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The ex-Boston Bruin shot towards the slot, and got a favourable deflection off the body of Morgan Rielly, and the Panthers now hope they've turned around their second-round series with a 5-4 overtime win.
Marchand is a noted Leafs killer whose success against the Maple Leafs dates back to the 2013 seven-game series featuring the Phil Kessel-era Leafs. He has 12 goals and 21 assists in 31 playoff games against Toronto.
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'His work ethic, he's hard on pucks, he's tenacious,' said Florida teammate Sam Reinhart. 'Players like that shine at this time of year.'
BRAD MARCHAND 🫡
His @Energizer overtime winner gives the @FlaPanthers the Game 3 victory! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/lRMM1ph39h
— NHL (@NHL) May 10, 2025
The Leafs have never beaten a team with Marchand on it in a post-season series.
'Marchand adds creativity to his line,' said Leafs head coach Craig Berube. 'He's a good player, makes plays, subtle little things he does on the ice. Makes them a more dangerous line.'
His Bruins beat the Leafs in 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2024, each series going to seven games.
'He plays hard, always plays hard,' said Leafs centre John Tavares.
On a night of funny bounces, Marchand made sure the Panthers got the last one with his winner off Rielly, who had actually forced overtime with a lucky bounce of his own.
'That's how pucks are going in right now; it's not just this series,' said Rielly.
'In overtime, we had our opportunities. It's a bounce, that's what happens in overtime,' said Berube.
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Leafs
Opinion
Dave Feschuk: Florida Panther Sam Bennett thought he didn't hit Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz's head with 'a lot of force.' Here's what the concussion experts think
Neurosurgeon Charles Tator called the amount of force 'gigantic,' while Chris Nowinski, CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation suggested the
Leafs
Opinion
Dave Feschuk: Florida Panther Sam Bennett thought he didn't hit Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz's head with 'a lot of force.' Here's what the concussion experts think
Neurosurgeon Charles Tator called the amount of force 'gigantic,' while Chris Nowinski, CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation suggested the
The Maple Leafs, of course, hope Friday night's setback was just a blip.
'We're happy to be up in the series,' said Rielly. 'Tonight wasn't the result we wanted, but there are good things going on. We'll try to clean up the areas that need to be addressed. We're in a good position. It's important to stay focussed.'
Any way you look at it, it's a battle. A battle for space, for bounces, for earning the puck, for taking a hit, and scoring when it matters.
Fast start for Leafs
Matthew Knies scored 23 seconds in the game — the fourth-fastest start to a playoff game in Leafs history. Tavares scored twice, tipping a Mitch Marner shot each time to establish a 3-1 lead.
But it was Rielly who forced the overtime in the third period after Florida had asserted itself in the middle frame. Rielly got a lucky bounce after being the victim of a bad bounce in the second that helped the Panthers get back into the game.
'They're a good team,' said Tavares. 'We didn't execute as well playing through the pressure. We battled hard in the third, got some pressure back, earned an opportunity. Overtime just didn't go our way.'
Rielly simply took a shot — the lesson all teams ought to learn from in the tight-checking post-season. It was a snap shot from 47 feet that Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky got a pad on, but the rebound hit defenceman Seth Jones and bounced into the net with 9:04 remaining in the third.
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Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll, left, and defenceman Brandon Carlo can't stop a goal going in from the Panthers' Jonah Gadjovich during the second period of Game 3.
Eliot J. Schechter NHLI via Gett
About the goalies ...
It was a night of close calls and lucky bounces that will have both goalies under the microscope. The Leafs came ever-so-close to taking a 3-0 series lead with overtime chances by William Nylander and Knies but Bobrovsky had his best game of the series.
Joseph Woll's game will be dissected for ages, the Leafs netminder allowing three goals over nine minutes 54 second period that turned a 3-1 Toronto lead into a 4-3 deficit.
'I thought he was really good,' Berube said of Woll. 'I didn't love the fourth goal, but other than that I thought he was solid.'
Woll took over the net halfway through Game 1 of the series when Anthony Stolarz left the game, suffering an apparent concussion. Stolarz did not accompany the team to Florida and is an unlikely to be available for Sunday's Game 4 in Sunrise, Fla.
'Thought we played a strong game, especially in the third and overtime,' said Woll. 'The difference is the bounce one way. That's how playoff games go. Just got to reset. You just shake it off. Bounces go both ways. That's hockey.'
The Leafs are still in the driver's seat. Teams that are up two games to one have won 391 series all-time, losing 177 (a .688 winning percentage).
Rookie Dennis Hildeby backed up Woll for Game 3 after veteran Matt Murray had done so in Game 2. Murray was sick, Berube said.
'Whatever happens, we have to keep going, keep playing, keep pushing,' said Tavares. 'We know we can be better. We have to be.'
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Jari Kurri (1987 against the Flyers), Petr Klima (1990 triple OT to beat the Bruins), Fernando Pisani (2006 shorthanded to stun the Hurricanes) and Leon Draisaitl in Game 1 Wednesday were all W's until Marchand struck. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. You dirty rat… In between his goals, there was a near-one from the trade deadline steal in the first OT period, when Marchand was robbed by a Skinner pad save, then slid the puck under the goalie and out the other side. And, the face washes, the snow showers in the crease, the fake chicken wing thrown at Leon Draisaitl when the former Boston Bruins' captain skated by both Oiler players. 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Like a rat on valium… The NHL is a young man's sport but the 40-year old Corey Perry outmuscled Florida winger Eetu Luostarinen to a loose puck to tie it with 18 seconds left and the 37-year-old Marchand won it on his 10th Stanley Cup final goal as his mother Lynn cleared her throat, yelling 'Way to Go Bradley' from the seats. We know that Marchand's dad Kevin was a junior tough guy in Nova Scotia, a teammate of Oiler Evander Kane's pop, but what kind of hockey mum is Lynn? She's loud and proud, gets pretty amped up at games, says her pride and joy. 'She's one you put a muzzle on,' joked Marchand. ' I bet your mum would say you sometimes need a muzzle, Brad,' kidded a scribe. 'No,' said Marchand in his deadpan delivery. Marchand's shortie—a little pump fake, then a quick shot after getting in behind the Oiler big guns–was an exclamation point to a bad Edmonton power play where they were one-for-six with just seven shots on Sergei Bobrovsky. On the other breakaway in the second OT, he caught a break when Oiler D Mattias Ekholm's ripper off the left side just missed and rang around the boards, only to pop into the open ice with Evan Bouchard figuring it was going to stay on the wall. Marchand anticipated the geometry of the puck coming off the boards and was gone. He managed to shovel it past Skinner, not quite with the same flourish as the shortie, but it was a whole lot more dramatic. And, he's usually money on breakaways. His secret? 'Don't forget the puck (overskating it), I've done that before. Not a good feeling,' said Marchand, who didn't fumble the winner off an Anton Lundell feed, but it was close as he got the backhander to just slide in. Right? 'Obviously a fortuitous bounce,' Marchand said on a post-game TNT interview for the U.S. audience. 'I think our whole bench stood up when he was going in on the breakaway…just a huge play at a huge time and he's been incredible for us this whole playoff (17 points), scoring massive goals at massive times,' said Public Enemy No. 1a, Sam Bennett, who's no offensive slouch himself with his playoff leading 13th. 'What goes through your mind at that time? Pure excitement, adrenalin for our entire group. You're only one shot away in this game and luckily it went our way tonight,' said Marchand, who also saved the Panthers in Game 3 in round 2 against Toronto with his OT goal after Florida had dropped the first two to the Leafs and, in the finals, he was well aware that going down two games to the Oilers would have been a very deep hole, even for the Cup champs. But after Perry's goal off the Jake Walman shot — the Oilers' 100th game of the season and Perry's 99th— the Panthers managed to regroup. In the dressing room, they were even laughing and debating who would get the OT winner, with people raising their hands. 'We were upbeat, joking around, having some fun … picking guys who we think was going to score. I'm sure a lot of guys probably had marchy.' Not that Marchand saw the sentiment. He was out of sight, riding the bike. 'I kind of do it after every period. It's a routine I've gotten into. You do anything to keep your legs going in overtime,' said Marchand. Anything players are also eating as the game goes this deep into OT? 'I think Marchy grabbed a Blizzard,' kidded Bennett, a riff on his teammate's love of the ice-cream menu at Dairy Queen. 'Yeah, I think it was Oreo today,' said Marchand. 'Nice plug, I like that.' It's easy to plug Marchand too. This was the best trade at the deadline with Florida giving up a first-round pick in either 2027 or 2028 for the unrestricted free agent who could easily resign there off his playoff and with no state income tax to make a contract more palatable for both sides. Marchand, who now has five OT goals in the playoffs, third all-time, behind Joe Sakic (eight) and Rocket Richard (six). is just wired to be a playoff performer, even at 37, just as Perry is. He also has five overtime goals. They both drag people into the fight, always have, and this was a fight to the finish in Game 2. 'Marchand's an absolute dog, he's got that dog in him…the battle he has just inspires the group,' said Bennett, in that TNT interview. Small dog, big rat…whatever the animal, he's a beauty.
