A rematch of the 2023 second round gives the Leafs a second chance to right a past wrong. Toronto and Florida will be a great series as both teams look to make a deep run this postseason.

William Nylander stole the show with two goals and added an assist in the win, while Matthew Knies and Chris Tanev both notched a goal and an assist in the contest.

“We came out and got a couple of good scoring chances and were able to capitalize on them, so that was nice for us,” Nylander said. “We just focus on the next game now.”

William Nylander got the Leafs started off hot early, scoring 37 seconds into the game to give Toronto the lead and the momentum early, when Nylander beat Bobrovsky through the five-hole from a tight angle for his fourth of the postseason.

The Maple Leafs went up 2-0 later in the first when Nylander caught a rebound in the slot after Bobrovsky made a pad save on Ekman-Larsson and put. the puck over his glove from another tight angle. Nylander’s two goals came in tight to the crease, something that Toronto would love to keep up in this hard postseason matchup.

Seth Jones cut the Leaf lead in half on the powerplay with less than four minutes to play in the period with a point shot and through lots of traffic to beat Stolarz.

Just 19 seconds later, Nylander sent Rielly and Tavares on a two-on-one where Rielly fired it from the left circle past Bobrovsky to regain the two goal lead for the Maple Leafs.

With just under 8 minutes gone in the second, Chris Tanev decided to get on the scoresheet by adding his own goal, shooting with traffic from the far right point and somehow getting the puck past Bobrovsky.

At some point in the second period, Stolarz got caught by a Sam Bennett forearm to the side of the head. Stolarz was shaken up at the point of impact, but looked like he shook it off and stayed in the game for the next few minutes. At the next television timeout, Stolarz was seen vomiting behind the Leaf bench, and ultimately getting pulled to get medical attention. It was reported that Stolarz was taken out in a stretcher and to a local hospital to undergo further medical evaluation postgame.

Florida quickly added a couple of goals in the third period, but Toronto was able to deal with the momentum that the Panthers had and hold on for the rest of the period. Matthew Knies scored with six minutes left in the game on a breakaway to give Toronto some cushion headed into the final stretch of the game.

With the Florida net empty, the Panthers were able to score 6-on-5 to cut the lead back down to one, but the Maple Leafs were able to stay strong and hold on to the lead to secure the game 1 victory.

The Leafs competed for the entirety of the game, setting some milestones in this game. Nylander became the 10th player in Leafs history to record consecutive multi goal games in the postseason and first since Wendel Clark (Games 6-7 of 1994 Conference Semifinals), whereas Morgan Rielly scored his 14th career playoff goal, surpassing Ian Turnbull for the most by a defenseman in franchise history.

The Maple Leafs look to ride this win all the way into Wednesday’s game 2. By then, there should be some clarity on whether or not Anthony Stolarz will miss some time with the apparent head injury.