Sam Bennett scored power-play goals late in each of the first two periods, Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves and the short-handed Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Thursday night for their seventh victory in eight games.

Sam Bennett scored two power-play goals as the visiting Florida Panthers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Thursday night.

The game marks the first of three meetings between the Maple Leafs and Panthers in the final five weeks of the season. They'll face each other again in Toronto on April 2 followed by a matchup six days later at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs lost an important divisional matchup versus the Florida Panthers, with all-too-familiar problems taking centre stage.

Cutting into the deficit for the Maple Leafs in the third period, Max Domi, shortly after a power play had expired for Toronto, sniped a shot from the slot to make it 3-2 at 4:26. From there, Sergei Bobrovsky shut the door.

Early in the first period, Domi delivered a hard open-ice hit on Panthers' Carter Verhaeghe, knocking the forward off balance. Just a few seconds after that, Verhaeghe's teammate

Florida Panthers right wing Mackie Samoskevich (25), Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Alex Nylander (92) and right wing William Nylander (88) go for the puck during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) AP

Max Domi isn’t going to the Toronto Marlies any time soon. But if you let social media commenters control the Toronto Maple Leafs, he would have been long gone ages ago.