NHL Announces Referees for Pivotal Game 5 Between the Maple Leafs and Panthers

After seeing their 2-0 series lead over the Florida Panthers vanish in Games 3 and 4, the Toronto Maple Leafs return to Scotiabank Arena tonight in what will be their biggest game of the season. The winner takes a 3-2 series lead with the scene shifting back to Florida for Game 6.

The Maple Leafs need to make sure that they not only bring their A-game tonight, but stay disciplined and out of the penalty box, which might not be an issue with the officiating crew having been announced for Game 5.

The veteran duo of Kelly Sutherland and Eric Furlatt will be the referees for tonight, while Kiel Murchison and Jesse Marquis will be the linespersons.

Sutherland and Furlatt are veterans of 3,139 regular season games, including 145 this season, as well as an additional 437 playoff games. The linespersons are a little less seasoned but Murchison and Marquis still have 1,349 games combined between the two of them in both regular season and playoffs.

What could be an advantage tonight is that the home team holds a 42-27-5 record with Sutherland and a 42-24-7 record with Furlatt. Furthermore, the Leafs are 8-1-0 combined with both referees but the Panthers have had the same level of success as well with a 8-3-0 record, including having 7 games officiated by Sutherland this year.

It will also be the first game officiated this post-season for the Maple Leafs for both referees, whereas Furlatt has one game under his belt with the Panthers, which took place in Game 1 of their first round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

After coming out strong in the first 2 games of the series, the Maple Leafs slipped into some of their old habits in Games 3 and 4 and will be looking to rectify a lot of those mistakes as they hope to push the Panthers on the brink of elimination.