Just two minutes into the second, the Leafs evened the score up when Mikhail Grabovski scored his ninth of the season top shelf on Jose Theodore, with assists by Cody Fransson and Nikolai Kulemin.
It would take Florida 19 seconds to reestablish their one goal lead, as Bill Thomas led a breakaway and fanned on the shot but the puck went in anyway for his first goal of the season, with assists by Evgeny Dadonov and Mark Cullen.
Florida went on the power play when Keith Aulie cross checked Tim Kennedy at the 17 minute mark. On the resultant man advantage, Michel Repik Scored his first goal of the season on a redirect of a Jason Garrison slapshot to chase James Reimer, who allowed three goals on his first seven shots. Brian Campbell also collected an assist on the play.
Florida went on a five-on-three power play after Mikhail Grabovski slashed Dmitry Kulikov and the bench was called for too many men just 40 seconds later.
The Panthers went up 4-1 with the two man advantage when Kris Versteeg scored his team leading 17th goal of the season. Brian Campbell and Tomas Kopecky got the helpers on the play.
Dion Phaneuf made it 4-2 with a wrister from the right faceoff circle for his fifth goal of the season, with assists from Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul at the halfway point of the second.
The teams traded chances for the rest of the period, but the score would remain 4-2 into the second intermission.
Hits: Toronto, 27-13
Blocked Shots: Florida, 9-7
Faceoffs: Florida, 21-14
Shots On Goal: Toronto, 24-17
Score: Florida 4, Toronto 2