Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, who suffered a lower-body injury in the second period Saturday in Montreal that forced an MRI on Sunday, did not play in the Panthers’ dramatic 5-3 win over the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Monday.
The Panthers clearly missed Barkov early on, falling down, 3-1, before storming back with the four third-period goals. Mark Pysyk scored three times in his first career hat trick as Florida won for the seventh time in the past eight games.
Mike Hoffman had a goal and an assist for Florida, Mike Matheson had three assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves en route to the victory.
“I thought we had a lot of enthusiasm — even though we were down 3-1 — on the bench, and we scored rather quickly after that,” Panthers coach Joel Quenneville said. “We got a little life off it, and we took off a bit.”
Barkov, the Panthers’ captain, did not participate in morning skate with the Panthers, and Quenneville said his second-leading scorer is day-to-day. Quenneville added that the MRI came back “all good,” but his status for Tuesday’s game in Columbus is not known.
Barkov played 14 shifts, totaling 10:45 time on the ice, before the injury in Saturday’s 4-0 loss to the Canadiens. He was checked into the boards awkwardly, in the Canadiens zone, by Montreal defenseman Shea Weber, though he was able to skate to the bench on his own.
Barkov, 24, has been key to Florida’s run toward the postseason. He has 16 goals, including seven on the power play, and 54 points. Playing alongside All-Star Jonathan Huberdeau, the duo has combined for 35 goals and 120 points this season.
Florida has positioned itself in the thick of a congested Eastern Conference playoff race. With Monday’s win, the Panthers are now in the No. 3 spot in the Atlantic Division, with 63 points.
“To be down the way we were, it was a surprising comeback,” Quenneville said. “We had a few of those earlier on in the year. But today was as good as any one that we’ve had all year.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.