'It's Important We Have Rules, Just Go With That' Maple Leafs and Panthers Respond to Unusual Shootout Twist, as Toronto Secures Victory in Dramatic Fashion

After a majority of the Panthers had already made their way back to the visitors' dressing room at Scotiabank Arena, Rodrigues' goal was reviewed by the NHL and deemed to have been a double-tap, which is not permissible in shootouts or penalty shots.

The game would continue. 

Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe and Woll were already in the Toronto locker room having already assumed defeat.

"I walked into the coaches' room and our video guys said ‘I think this is going to come back’ so we headed up," Keefe said.

While many Leafs stayed on the bench, more than half of the Panthers had left the ice. Once they were alerted the game would continue, one Panther could be heard yelling "Only in Toronto!."

Maple Leafs forward Noah Gregor resumed the shootout in Toronto and beat Anthony Stolarz to put Toronto back up in the shootout. The Panthers' Locker room tunnel door was still open during Gregor's attempt.

"I'm going to have to check that out," Gregor said with a laugh.

In the end, Gregor accounted for all of Toronto's offense. In addition to scoring Toronto's only goal in regulation, he got the nod for his very first shootout attempt in the NHL and he converted. Woll saved Nick Cousin's attempt to preserve the win for Toronto.

The best reaction to the turn of events came from Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, who did his best to not react to the way the game ended but couldn't help himself.

While saying he was proud of the way his team played on the back end of back-to-back games (they played against the Ottawa Senators the night before), he was asked if he'd ever seen a goal called back like Rodrigues' in the shootout.,

"I have not seen that, especially that fast," Maurice said. " You know what I think is important? It’s that they have rules. 

This is where Maurice breaks character and laughs at his own response while dropping an F-bomb. "It’s important that we have them. Because there’s no other way to do that. Because if he rips it off the guy and it goes off his shin pad goes in, is that a goal? That happens so fast. So it wasn’t. It’s important we have rules. Just going with that. F*ck."

The Maple Leafs pick up two points. What might be forgotten was how poorly they played in the first period or the fact that they picked up their league-leading eight bench minor this season. But they got two points.