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5 hours ago
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The Florida Panthers may have cut into the Toronto Maple Leafs’ series lead with an overtime win in Game 3, but Brad Marchand wasn’t in the mood to celebrate for long.
The 36-year-old veteran delivered the winning goal late in the extra period to make it a 2-1 series, yet his focus remained firmly on what’s still to come.
Marchand redirected a shot off Morgan Rielly at 15:27 of overtime on Friday to seal a 5-4 victory in Sunrise.
It was his fourth career postseason overtime goal and made him the oldest player in Panthers history to score one.
After the game, Marchand turned his attention back to the opponent instead of continuing to celebrate for too long. He made sure to warn his teammates about the remainder of the second-round series.
“You saw the way that they prepared for the game tonight. They have their killer instinct right now,” Marchand said. “It's tough. That’s part of why there's such a great team. Part of what makes us a good team, too.
”Because you don't sit back after you get scored on.”
In the same Game 3 postgame press conference, Marchand made clear the Panthers aren't satisfied just by getting one win.
“It obviously felt good for the group,” Marchand said. “We had a good game—a better second half of the game because we didn’t start the way we would have liked. I love their resiliency. We battled back from a couple two-goal deficits and we just competed the way we know we can.
”But it’s all about doing it the next game.”
Florida Panthers center Brad Marchand (63) moves the puck against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amerant Bank Arena.
Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
The Leafs led 2-0 within the first six minutes and 3-1 at the start of the second period. After that, three unanswered goals by Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, and Jonah Gadjovich put Florida ahead before Morgan Rielly tied it 4-4 in the third.
Then came Marchand’s moment, scoring the winner with under five minutes left in the first extra period.
“In overtime, there’s no bad shot you can put on the net,” Marchand said. “It’s one second of a game. It could be anybody.”
Game 4 between the Maple Leafs and the Panthers is set for Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET at Amerant Bank Arena before the series returns to Toronto for Game 5.
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