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Ben Scrivens stops 37 shots to notch 2nd consecutive shutout as Maple Leafs beat Panthers 3-0

By: Paul Gereffi, The Associated Press

Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 at 10:30 PM | Comments: 0

Florida Panthers' Stephen Weiss falls in front of the Toronto Maple Leafs bench during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Sunrise, Fla., Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

SUNRISE, Fla. - The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping to keep things rolling on the road.

Ben Scrivens notched his second consecutive shutout, and Clarke MacArthur and Nazem Kadri each had a goal and an assist to lead the Maple Leafs to a 3-0 win over the Florida Panthers on Monday night.

Phil Kessel also scored for the Maple Leafs, who won for the sixth time in seven games. Toronto is off to its best road start since opening 7-2-0 away from home during the 1940-41 season.

Scrivens, who got his first career shutout last Saturday in a 3-0 victory over Ottawa, stopped 37 shots.

"I said it two days ago, a shutout is a team stat, it's not strictly a goaltender stat," Scrivens said. "The guys did a great job killing penalties, blocking shots, making smart plays at both the offensive and defensive blue lines and letting me see the puck. So, much of the credit goes to them."

The Leafs beat the Panthers for the first time in seven games dating to a 4-3 shootout win on Feb. 1, 2011.

"We don't want to get overly excited," MacArthur said. "It's really early yet. We want to keep building. Our team is getting better and better. Our goalies have been playing great. It's something where it's a good feeling we're building something here but we don't get too excited."

Jose Theodore made 30 saves for Florida, which lost its fifth straight overall and sixth in the past seven at home. The Panthers went 0-for-3 on the power play and are 0-for-15 over the past five games, while giving up a power-play goal.

"Personally, I think our power play sucked the life out of us," Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said. "That's an area we have to keep working on and have our special teams give us a boost instead of going 0-for on the one side and giving up the big goal on the other."

The Maple Leafs took a 1-0 lead on Kessel's goal with 2:56 to go in the opening period. Kessel brought the puck along the boards and sent a wrist shot high into the net.

Toronto went ahead 2-0 on a power-play goal by Nadri at 12:13 of the second. Dion Phaneuf passed the puck from behind the net in front to a wide open Kadri, whose shot beat Theodore on the glove side.

The Leafs stretched it to 3-0 less than two minutes later. Kadri passed the puck from the right side to MacArthur between the circles and he rifled the puck past Theodore on the stick side with 6:03 left in the period.

The Maple Leafs play four of their next six games on the road and are being careful to not get overconfident.

"We're still very much a work in progress," Maple Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said.

The Panthers didn't get a point after losing their last three games in overtime.

"It's not fun, we need to be better, we know we need to be better, the game plan's been put out there for us and we need to go execute it. We're not executing it," Panthers defenceman Brian Campbell said.

Notes: Kessel has all three of his goals and 10 of his 12 points on the road this season. ... The Maple Leafs are 20-21 on penalty kills over the last six games. ... Panthers F Kris Versteeg missed his third straight game with an upper-body injury.

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