Panthers top Maple Leafs 3-1, snap 5-game slide and tighten Atlantic Division race

SUNRISE Fla AP Eetu Luostarinen scored about a minute into the third period and the Florida Panthers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs - on Tuesday night and helping the reigning Stanley Cup champions snap a five-game losing streak Gustav Forsling also scored for Florida which got saves from Sergei Bobrovsky Carter Verhaeghe sealed it with an empty-net goal with seconds left John Tavares scored his th goal of the season for Tampa Bay which saw its four-game winning streak snapped The Panthers got center Aleksander Barkov back in the lineup after he missed three games with an upper-body injury Florida which has four games left closed within four points of Toronto and two of Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division race Takeaways Maple Leafs Toronto went - - against Florida this season The Panthers a practicable first-round opponent for Toronto this year are now - - against the Maple Leafs going back to late in the - season Panthers Sam Bennett will miss the rest of the regular season with an upper-body injury joining Matthew Tkachuk lower-body and Aaron Ekblad suspended among those out until the playoffs Ekblad can t return until Event of Round and the Panthers haven t revealed for certain that Tkachuk will be back for Battle Key moment Florida turned the puck over giving Auston Matthews a point-blank shot from the slot with left then a rebound chance by Matthew Knies Bobrovsky kicked both away protecting Florida s - lead Key stat An oddity The first three goals of the battle combined to have exactly one assist awarded Verhaeghe s goal was assisted by Brad Marchand and Barkov Up next Toronto visits Tampa Bay on Wednesday Florida plays host to Detroit on Thursday