Leafs’ William Nylander responds to Matthew Tkachuk’s stern warning

The Toronto Maple Leafs were one overtime goal away from taking a 3-0 stranglehold on the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in their Eastern Conference second-round series. Instead, they’re headed home tied 2-2 after a lacklustre Game 4 loss to their Atlantic Division rivals at Amerant Bank Arena on Sunday night.

The series heated up in a big way in Game 4, with multiple questionable checks being thrown by both teams — including a Max Domi hit from behind on Panthers captain Sasha Barkov as the buzzer was sounding.

There was also some drama between the benches, with Florida star Matthew Tkachuk telling William Nylander that “he’ll be coming for him when they meet again on Wednesday night,” per The Athletic’s Chris Johnston.

“I mean, that’s what he does,” Nylander told reporters afterwards. “He’ll probably do whatever he can to get a player off their game. Next game’s going to be a fun one.”

Florida was the better team on Sunday, utilizing a Carter Verhaeghe powerplay goal in the first period and a Sergei Bobrovsky shutout to send the series back to Toronto now a best-of-three. Sam Bennett added an insurance marker midway through the third period in the 2-0 final.

Although Domi is unlikely to be suspended for the hit, the temperature of the matchup has certainly risen a couple of notches ahead of Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night.

“I mean, obviously (Domi is) trying to take a run at Barky at the end there,” Bennett said afterwards, per Johnston. “You know, the boys did a good job jumping in there and sticking up for Barky. Yeah, I mean, it’s been a physical series, so I expect more of that.”

Leafs, Panthers are in for a long series

Nylander has been the best player for Toronto in the series, managing six points through four games. But all of the Leafs’ stars were held at bay by Florida’s stingy defense, along with a 23-save performance by Bobrovsky.

Joseph Woll was excellent in the other crease, making 35 saves in the losing effort.

“He was great, played an excellent game,” head coach Craig Berube said, per NHL.com’s George Richards. “He was a big reason that it was only 1-0 going into the third. In the end, I really liked our physicality, our compete. Guys are playing hard. This is a tough series. They’re a very good team.”

The Leafs won both Games 1 and 2 at home last week, and they’ll need to find a way to come out on top in Game 5 or else be staring down elimination back in Sunrise in a couple of days time.

“We’re mindful that it is one game,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, per Richards. “I don’t believe in momentum when the puck drops on the next game. We’re going to need to fight hard to get back to what was a pretty well-played game by our team.”

After an extra day off, puck is set to drop on a critical Game 5 from Southwestern Ontario just past 7:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday night.