The Florida Panthers steamrolled into Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night and left with a dominant 6–1 win in Game 5. They now lead the series 3–2 and can close it out Friday at home.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 shots and was sharp early, turning away William Nylander on a breakaway to keep things level. By the time the Leafs started showing any kind of push, they were already chasing the game.

Florida opened the scoring late in the first after Auston Matthews coughed the puck up below the goal line. Sam Reinhart corralled it and fed Aaron Ekblad, who ripped a shot past Joseph Woll for the 1–0 lead.

“They outskated us really,” said Leafs head coach Craig Berube. “They had the puck, won the races. We played slow. They were fast, honest, hungrier.”

Things got worse from there.

Dmitry Kulikov made it 2–0 in the second when his point shot deflected off Scott Laughton and past Woll. A few minutes later, Mitch Marner tossed a no-look backhand pass up the middle that got picked off cleanly. Reinhart took it the other way and found Jesper Boqvist, who snuck behind Marner and tapped in his first of the playoffs.

Boqvist had been a healthy scratch the last two games.

“They are going to make you pay and that’s what they did,” Marner said. “Not hard enough working. Gave them way too many opportunities around our net.”

Niko Mikkola made it 4–0 later in the period with a clean shot from the circle. Woll never saw it.

Berube opened the third by sending out the fourth line, a clear message to the Leafs’ top-end talent. That didn’t shift anything either.

A.J. Greer made it 5–0 six minutes into the period, and Sam Bennett added a power play goal three minutes after that. That chased Woll, who gave up five on 25 shots. Matt Murray came in for mop-up duty and allowed one on seven.

“They owned us,” Nylander said. No one disagreed.

Nick Robertson scored with just over a minute left to break Bobrovsky’s shutout streak, which had stretched to 143 minutes and 25 seconds. It was the Leafs’ first goal since Morgan Rielly scored in the third period of Game 3.

Matthews, still without a goal in the series, didn’t have much to say post-game.

“The only thing we can do is regroup and reset and go out and we have to win a game to keep our season alive,” he said.

The building was half-empty by the final buzzer. Some fans tossed jerseys on the ice. The rest quietly headed for the exits.

Game 6 is Friday in Sunrise. If the Leafs can extend the series, Game 7 would be back in Toronto on Sunday.