TORONTO (AP) Frederik Andersen could sense this was going to be a low-scoring game without many chances. He was right – and he was sharp when it counted.Andersen made 40 saves and James van Riemsdyk scored the only goal as the surging Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Florida Panthers 1-0 on Tuesday night for their seventh consecutive victory at home.”These are always fun Evgenii Dadonov Jersey Kids ,” Andersen said. ”The game was tough from the beginning. I think the ice was a little tough.”Article continues below ...The shutout was Andersen’s career-best fifth of the season. The 28-year-old goalie reached 30 wins for the third time.Andersen also improved to 7-0-2 with a 1.82 goals-against average, a .952 save percentage and two shutouts this season when facing 40 or more shots.Opponents are taking note of his elevated game.”Especially this year, he’s really taken his game to another level,” Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo said after Tuesday’s morning skate. ”Obviously in the top tier of goaltenders in the league now, and he’s giving his team a chance to win every night.”Toronto (37-20-5) has won 11 of 12 overall and improved to 14-4-2 since Jan. 4.The Panthers (26-25-6) have dropped back-to-back games after opening their five-game road trip with three straight wins. Florida entered the night six points out of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.Florida threatened in the third with Luongo pulled for an extra attacker, but Andersen managed to thwart the Panthers’ best chance – a point shot from Keith Yandle with 23 seconds remaining.Luongo stopped 30 shots in the loss.”I thought both goaltenders were really hot tonight,” said Jonathan Huberdeau. ”I think in the third we had some pressure, we got a lot of chances, but it didn’t go in. It’s a tough loss.”Andersen is the fifth Maple Leafs goaltender to register multiple shutouts when making at least 40 saves since 1955-56 when the NHL began counting shots on goal as an official statistic.”I think a huge part of it is fitness,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. ”He did a real nice job this summer and so he’s just building off of confidence. I think last year, if I’m not mistaken http://www.officialhockeypanthersshop.com/authentic-adidas-james-reimer-jersey , was the first time he’s ever really been the starter.”So, you go through that and you get comfortable and you get comfortable with your teammates and it just goes from there.”With 28 seconds left in the first period, van Riemsdyk beat Luongo between the legs with a shot from the faceoff dot for his 25th goal of the season. Jake Gardiner had an assist for his 200th NHL point.”In a lot of those situations, there’s not a lot of time so you just want to try to get it off as quick as you can,” van Riemsdyk said. ”To say I was shooting there would probably be a lie. I was just trying to throw it on the net and get it there quick and it went in, thankfully.”Patrick Marleau nearly made it a two-goal game 1:02 into the third by finishing off a 2-on-1 feed from Mitch Marner, but couldn’t beat the right pad of Luongo.With 2:40 remaining, Leo Komarov’s shot beat Luongo but rang off the post.The Panthers defeated the Maple Leafs 2-1 in a shootout on Nov. 22 in the only previous meeting between the teams this season. Toronto visits Florida on Feb. 27.NOTES: The Maple Leafs traded forward Eric Fehr to San Jose for a 2020 seventh-round draft pick. The move drops Toronto to 48 contracts and gives general manager Lou Lamoriello added flexibility before next week’s trade deadline. . Marleau (1,555) passed Jarome Iginla for 12th place on the NHL’s career list for games played. . Yandle played in his 800th career game. The 31-year-old defenseman owns the NHL’s longest active streak with 689 consecutive games played.UP NEXTPanthers: Host the Washington Capitals on Thursday night.Maple Leafs: Continue their three-game homestand Thursday night against the New York Islanders.— PITTSBURGH (AP) Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom have spent their entire careers chasing the Pittsburgh Penguins and shouldering their own franchise’s onerous history of playoff failures.One brilliant end-to-end rush gave the two Washington Capitals teammates and their resilient club something they’ve rarely enjoyed against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions: momentum.Ovechkin knocked his own rebound out of midair and by Matt Murray with 1:07 remaining to lift the Capitals to a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night in Game 3 of their increasingly testy Eastern Conference semifinal series with Pittsburgh.Ovechkin’s initial shot smacked off the far post.The Russian star, however, stayed with the play and with Murray out of position Youth Jamie McGinn Jersey , he deftly flicked it into the open net to give the Capitals a 2-1 series lead.”It’s a good thing I didn’t raise my arms up (after the first shot), you know to (celebrate) the play,” Ovechkin said after scoring his eighth goal of the playoffs. ”Got lucky.”Matt Niskanen, John Carlson and Chandler Stephenson also scored for Washington, which improved to 4-0 on the road in the postseason. Braden Holtby finished with 19 saves. Backstrom had three assists, including the helper on Ovechkin’s winner.”It’s huge, huge goal,” Ovechkin said. ”Obviously for our team, you know we want to win tonight and we did. It doesn’t matter what, it doesn’t matter who scored. We sacrifice. We play hard. And we have to do the same moving forward.”Game 4 is in Pittsburgh on Thursday night.Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist also scored, but the Penguins lost consecutive playoff games for only the fourth time since the start of their run to consecutive Stanley Cups began in 2016.Pittsburgh also lost forward Zach Aston-Reese to a broken jaw and a concussion following a violent collision with Washington’s Tom Wilson at the game’s midway point.Aston-Reese was stickhandling near the Washington bench when Wilson slammed into him Womens Jared McCann Jersey , sending the 6-foot-4 Aston-Reese to the ice.Wilson was not penalized on the play, the second time in as many games he was not disciplined for a borderline hit.Pittsburgh defenseman Brian Dumoulin went into the league’s concussion protocol after Wilson blindsided him in Game 2 while Dumoulin was bracing for a collision with Ovechkin.The NHL’s Department of Player safety didn’t ask Wilson to explain himself during a hearing and Dumoulin was back in the lineup to start Game 3.Both teams stressed the need to move forward with so much at stake. But that was before Aston-Reese slowly made his way off the ice, flinging one of his gloves at the Washington bench in frustration, his jaw mangled and his status for the rest of the postseason uncertain.The initial point of contact was hard to discern, even on replay. Was it the shoulders? The head? Either way the tenor changed considerably.Asked afterward about the hit, Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan replied ”at some point we hope the league might do something.”Maybe not. Officials conferred for several minutes before deciding to take no action against Wilson.”They all got together and they said, `You know what, we’ve got a good, clean check here,”’ NHL on-site supervisor Paul Devorski said through a pool reporter.Stephenson tied the game shortly after the sequence and a crescendo of pushing, shoving and jawing followed.Crosby put the Penguins back in front with 3:33 left in the second when he took a pretty pass from Guentzel – who occupied three Capitals before sliding the puck to his teammate – and buried it into an open net.Niskanen Jonathan Huberdeau Jersey , who spent four seasons in Pittsburgh before signing with Washington in the summer of 2014, blasted a one-timer by Murray 5:06 into the third to set up the finish.Ovechkin and Backstrom’s two-on-one gave the Capitals the series lead over Washington for the first time since they won Game 1 of the 2016 Eastern Conference semifinal.Of course, the Capitals lost that series. As they almost always do when the Penguins are on the other side of the ice.The champions have proven to be an impossible out during their current reign. Three tight games in, Washington is well aware there’s little margin for error.”It’s a funny game,” Niskanen said. ”Boy, sometimes the puck takes a different bounce and the score can be completely different.”NOTES: Penguins C Evgeni Malkin played 19:07 and assisted on Hornqvist’s goal in his return after missing three games with a lower-body injury. … The Penguins hosted Humboldt Broncos junior hockey player Brayden Camrud , a survivor of the bus crash that killed 16 people – many of them teammates – last month. … Pittsburgh F Carl Hagelin skated with his teammates for a second straight day, but remained out of the lineup. Hagelin is dealing with an upper-body injury and has worn a full face shield while on the ice. … Both teams went 1 for 4 on the power play. … Guentzel has recorded a point in seven straight playoff games.—