Matthew Tkachuk had three assists as the Florida Panthers continued to roll, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at Scotiabank Place.

"He's a force, he's a great player", said Florida forward Sam Bennett about Tkachuk. "He steps up in big games and he's physical. He makes plays, he scores goals and he's one of the rarest players in the NHL i would say, so i'm glad he's on our team."

The Panthers have won four consecutive playoff games since trailing their first-round series 3-1 against Boston.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 34 saves and Bennett had a goal and an assist for Florida, who killed off all four Toronto power-play opportunities.

"My guys helped me a lot, they did great box outs and cleaned out the front of the net", said Bobrovsky. "The PK was dialed. Lots of blocked shots, lots of good sticks."

Matthew Knies scored his first NHL goal and Ilya Samsonov stopped 24 shots for the Maple Leafs, who were playing in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

Game 2 is Thursday night.

"I thought we made mistakes, now credit to Florida because of how they played, they force you to make mistakes, but I thought we made some mistakes here tonight that we didn't necessarily make in the last series", said head coach Sheldon Keefe.

Verhaeghe scores winner for second straight game as Panthers take Game 1

Toronto had a couple of power plays in the opening five minutes of the game after Bennett was called for elbowing and Gustav Forsling was whistled for tripping, but they couldn't cash in on either chance.

Florida took the lead with 10:35 left in the opening period as Nick Cousins scored with his backhand on the rebound from a Tkachuk shot just below the hash marks.

"We were trying to score on (the power plays)", said Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner. "We're trying to make plays. We did pretty well getting things around the net. We've just got to do a better job of getting second opportunities."

The lead was increased to 2-0 as a point shot by Aaron Ekblad went off the stick of Knies before Bennett deflected it at the top of the goal crease.

"Give them credit, they played well", said Toronto defenseman Luke Schenn. "But a lot of the goals that were scored were self-inflicted. They're a great team, they played well tonight, give them credit. But in saying, that we think, I think, still have a lot more to give."

Knies made it a one-goal game as he took Auston Matthews' pass and beat Bobrovsky with a no-look backhand.

Michael Bunting then tied the game, receiving a pass from Calle Jarnkrok at the top of the crease and switching to his backhand to score past the outstretched pad of Bobrovsky.

"I thought we were good tonight, I didn't think we were great", said Florida head coach Paul Maurice. "They had a good push back halfway through the game.

"We kind of got a little bit away from what we are good at, and they got closer to what they were really, really good at. That will be the battle of this series."

"You can expect a certain amount of forecheck and physicality from us and a certain amount of speed and skill from them and one team will feed the other. The team that brings the least amount of food to the game wins." 

Carter Verhaeghe, who scored the overtime winner in Game 7 against Boston, put the Panthers in front after Anthony Duclair got the puck behind a pinching T.J. Brodie, and Verhaeghe took it from the neutral zone to score on a breakaway.

"Duclair made a great play to me, and I think it's huge, anytime you get a goal at the end of the period, instead of going in tied, you go in up a goal", Verhaeghe said. It settled us down after the period, and you could take a deep breath."

Keefe thought that goal was the difference.

"We gave up a breakaway really to the one guy we definitely don't want to give up a breakaway to", he said. "We don't want to give it to anybody, but we certainly don't want to give it to that guy.

"It's a big part of our plan going in is how he can jump into those holes,  and that's how he scores a lot of his goals getting in behind the defense. We cannot make that mistake when it's 2-2 at the end of the period. That's a tough one."

Brandon Montour made it a 4-2 game, one-timing a shot from the blue line on a pass from Tkachuk with the Panthers having a 6-on-5 advantage from a delayed penalty.

"We're playing confident right now", Bennett said. "We've really bought in to what we need to do to win, and I think there's still more our team can bring. 

"We didn't have a great full 60-minute game there so I think there's a little more we can do, clean up a couple things but our team is playing with some good confidence right now."