TORONTO — Sergei Bobrovsky made 34 saves, Matthew Tkachuk had three assists and the Florida Panthers survived a squandered two-goal lead to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Tuesday night in opening game of their second-round playoff series.

Sam Bennett had a goal and an assist and Carter Verhaeghe and Nick Cousins also scored for Florida. Aleksander Barkov had two assists.

Matthew Knies had his first NHL goal and Michael Bunting also scored for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov stopped 24 shots.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday.

The Panthers had roared back from a 3-1 deficit to stun the record-setting Boston Bruins with three straight victories and take that first-round series in seven games.

The Maple Leafs ended a generation of misery Saturday when John Tavares scored in overtime of Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Lightning as Toronto advance in the postseason for the first time since 2004.

Tied at 2 late in the second period with the Maple Leafs pushing, the Panthers silenced the towel-waving crowd at Scotiabank Arena.

Verhaeghe, who scored the dramatic winner in Game 7 against Boston on Sunday, took a pass from Anthony Duclair and gave Florida the lead for good when he beat Samsonov on a breakaway at 17:47 for his fourth goal of the playoffs.

Toronto had a couple opportunities to tie it in the third, but never really threatened Bobrovsky before Montour blasted a one-timer on a delayed penalty at 12:24.

Bobrovsky then denied William Nylander on a terrific toe stop with just over a minute left in regulation on Toronto’s best chance to close within one.

The Maple Leafs are in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since Jeremy Roenick scored in overtime of Game 6 for the Philadelphia Flyers to eliminate Toronto on May 4, 2004 — a stretch of 18 years, 11 months and 28 days.

After Toronto had a number of terrific looks on two power plays, the Panthers struck when Cousins scored his first on a rebound at 9:25 of the opening period.

Helped when a shot clanged off the post earlier in the period, Samsonov made big stops on Anton Lundell and Barkov.

Bobrovsky made a couple huge saves off Auston Matthews on a Maple Leafs power play in the second before Florida went up 2-0 at 7:58, when Bennett tipped a point shot past Samsonov that initially hit the stick of Knies.

The Toronto rookie made amends 11 seconds later when he scored his first professional goal on a highlight-reel effort between his skates with his back to Florida’s goal after Bobrovsky made the initial save.

Maple Leafs defenseman Luke Schenn then rocked Tkachuk with a big hit in the neutral zone before Bunting, who was suspended three games in the first round and made a healthy scratch for another, scored his first of the postseason at 14:51 following a perfect pass from Calle Jarnkrok.

Duclair sprung Verhaeghe later in the shift and he put the Panthers up 3-2.

NOTES

DEVILS-HURRICANES: 

The Carolina Hurricanes pushed through a first-round series in the Stanley Cup playoffs with enough time to let their injury-hit lineup recharge before facing their next opponent.

The mental break was just as important, too, before taking on a New Jersey Devils team less than 48 hours removed from a Game 7 win to advance.

“We’ve had time to kind of slow down and take a breath,” Coach Rod Brind’Amour said Tuesday. “Sometimes that gets you on your heels a little bit, but I think overall, mentally, it was needed.”

The Hurricanes closed out the New York Islanders in a six-game series on Friday night. They host Game 1 of the second-round series on Wednesday night, with the Devils having played twice to eliminate the New York Rangers since the Hurricanes last took the ice, including Monday night’s 4-0 win.

“I can tell you from my experience that I would rather just keep this thing going, keep the schedule, keep it every other day than having four or five days and you’re trying to simulate games and maybe what your opponent may look like,” Devils Coach Lindy Ruff said. “We’ve got our game at a high pace.”

The matchup pairs the top teams in the Metropolitan Division; the Hurricanes won the final game of the regular season to edge the Devils in the standings.

With Boston gone in a first-round stunner after a record-setting regular season, either the Hurricanes (113 points) or the Devils (112) will have home-ice advantage throughout the rest of the playoffs after Round 2.

The Devils got plenty from 22-year-old netminder Akira Schmid in the Rangers series despite the fact he had played just 24 regular-season games over two seasons.

The Hurricanes have used a rotation with Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta. Raanta got the start for the first five games of the Islanders series, then Andersen allowed one goal in the Game 6 win after returning from a brief illness.

Andersen missed last year’s playoffs due to injury in his first season with Carolina.

“For me, I think it’s just that focus of not trying to do too much and trusting the guys,” Andersen said. “I think we have the team that when everyone does that, it’s enough.”

WILD: The Minnesota Wild signed right wing Marcus Johansson to a two-year, $4 million contract, securing a key player who was set to become an unrestricted free agent.

Johansson’s salary cap hit of $2 million for the next two seasons will give General Manager Bill Guerin some valuable certainty in a time of little flexibility because of the dead money the Wild are carrying for the 2021 buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter.

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