SUNRISE – Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner flung pucks back and forth as warm-ups concluded.
The Maple Leafs star forwards were in their own world as fans banged on the glass in hopes of grabbing a souvenir.
Toronto’s dynamic duo always insists the outside noise in a hockey-crazed market falls on deaf ears.
The chatter, whether they were aware of it or not, reached a crescendo following an abysmal showing top to bottom in Game 5 of the team’s second-round playoff series with the Florida Panthers that pushed the Leafs to the brink.
And with Marner churning toward unrestricted free agency July 1, Friday’s usual pre-puck drop passing ritual could have been the pair’s last together in blue and white.
They made sure it wasn’t.
Matthews scored the winner off a Marner setup in the third period as Toronto staved off elimination with a gritty, hard-fought 2-0 victory to force Game 7 at home on Sunday night.
“We just stuck together,” Matthews said following his first-ever goal in the second round. “There’s a lot of noise on the outside, but the main focus is on the 20-plus guys that are in the room every day.”
The Leafs were skewered by large segments of a scarred, seething fan base in the wake of Wednesday’s 6-1 debacle at Scotiabank Arena on a night where they came out flat and never recovered.
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Toronto was booed off the ice at the end of the second period. Those remaining in a half-empty rink for the third continued the jeers, while two jerseys — including one with Matthews’ No. 34 on the back — hit the ice in emotional disgust.
There are a couple of fans back home who might want their discarded threads back after Friday’s performance against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
“We don’t care,” Marner said of any talk beyond the locker room’s four walls. “We just go out there and we want to do our thing. That’s what you love about this team … there’s a lot of trust.”
“I have all the confidence in the world in those guys,” Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll said after making 22 saves for his first playoff shutout. “And the team as a whole.”
Matthews, who has battled injury this season and indicated following the morning skate he’s at less than 100 per cent, led from the front with a battle level that was lacking across the board in Game 5.
On the winner, the centre took a quick pass from Marner at the Florida blue line before moving into the offensive zone and firing between Sergei Bobrovsky’s pads.
“You could feel the tension on both sides,” said winger Max Pacioretty, who added an insurance goal for the Leafs, his eighth in 16 career games when facing elimination. “Just an unbelievable shot from an unbelievable player. That’s why he’s our captain.”
Toronto head coach Craig Berube has stressed Matthews’ value is about more than scoring. That hard work at both ends of the ice paid off in Game 6.
“It starts with his determination, his leadership,” Berube said. “Rubs off on the rest of our team when they see him going the way he was going. He was very determined, competed extremely hard and touched all areas of the game.”
Pacioretty, the former Montreal Canadiens captain, knows a thing or two about pressure in a Canadian market.
“Both of them played a great hockey game,” he said of Matthews and Marner. “Everyone will probably want to talk about the goal and the points. But even there at the end, just so many good plays that I can replay in my mind of winning stick battles and winning puck battles to seal that win.
“I’ve never been as good as them, but I’ve been in their shoes a little bit where you’re judged on one thing as a player. They bring so much to this team and, as a group, it doesn’t go unnoticed.”
Now the Leafs, an Original Six franchise with just two series wins in 10 tries across the Matthews-Marner era, sit one victory from its first Eastern Conference final since 2002.
“Playing for one another,” Matthews said of what his team showed Friday with an uncertain off-season looming.
“Competing and doing our jobs … just a gutsy, gutsy win.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 16, 2025.