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Sports

Panthers hope to find the win column versus Leafs

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Florida Panthers coach Kevin Dineen knows that getting one point at a time will only take his club so far.

The Panthers try to secure their first victory in five games on Monday evening as they take on the streaking Toronto Maple Leafs, who have struggled in this series as of late.

It has been a silver lining two-plus weeks for the Panthers, who have lost five of their past eight but have points in seven of those games. They are 3-1-4 in that stretch, but have dropped four straight, including three in a row in overtime.

Florida got third-period goals from Tomas Kopecky and Jonathan Huberdeau to take a lead on Saturday over the Tampa Bay Lightning, but yielded the game- tying goal with 11 seconds left in regulation before suffering a 6-5 setback.

"We're just not finishing," Dineen said. "You're not going to get in the playoffs with 48 points. You can't try to get a point a game; it's just not going to work. We've got to find a way a more complete effort and end up with two points."

Jake Skille, Shawn Matthias and Jerred Smithson added goals and Jose Theodore made 30 saves for the Panthers, who wrap a four-game homestand on Monday. They have been without forward Kris Versteeg for the past two games of the residency because of an upper body injury.

Florida will look to halt its skid on Monday and pick up a sixth straight victory over the Maple Leafs, who the Panthers outscored 20-9 in sweeping last season's four-game series.

The Panthers have won eight of the last 10 encounters while the Maple Leafs have dropped five straight in Florida, having not won there since Nov. 27, 2009.

Toronto, though, comes in charging up the standings and off a 3-0 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Making his second straight start in place of James Reimer (knee), Ben Scrivens posted 34 saves for his first career shutout.

"So much of the credit obviously goes to the team," said Scrivens. "You can ask any goalie and they'll tell you that a shutout is a team stat. You don't get it on your own and I'm extremely thankful to the guys for playing hard for me."

The undrafted 26-year-old is 3-3-0 with a 2.23 goals against average and .927 save percentage in seven games (6 starts) this season.

Frazer McLaren, John-Michael Liles and Tyler Bozak each scored for the Maple Leafs, who had a four-game winning streak halted with a 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.

"You're going to have tough games now and then, but we bounced back from the Carolina loss," said Bozak. "The guys are all real happy with the effort tonight and we're really happy to get Ben that shutout."

Toronto is two points out of first place in the Northeast Division, while reigning division champion Florida is five points off the pace in the Southeast.