TORONTO — The Maple Leafs‘ offense was missing in action again in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Wednesday night, as a 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers now has Toronto facing playoff elimination.

The Leafs, who were shut out 2-0 in Game 4, didn’t score until the final two minutes of Game 5 and now trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series after holding a 2-0 lead.

Toronto’s top skaters were, again, invisible. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander have yet to record a goal in the second round. And now the Leafs will have to log consecutive wins to extend their postseason.

“I think everybody’s got to look in the mirror,” Matthews said. “Myself included. Everybody wants to be better. Everybody wants to win.”

Matthews has just three goals in the Leafs’ last 21 games. He was third on the team in regular-season scoring, with 33 goals in 67 games.

It wasn’t just Matthews, though. Toronto was lifeless from the start of Game 5 and never seemed to challenge Florida at either end of the ice.

The Panthers heavily outplayed the Leafs throughout the first period, and it was defenseman Aaron Ekblad who finally beat goaltender Joseph Woll to give Florida a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes.

While Woll kept Toronto in a tight matchup, it was clear already the Leafs were struggling to keep up with the Panthers.

“We played slow,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “They were fast, they were on us, they were hungrier. That’s the first period, and that sets the tone for the game. It is hard to explain it. We all need to be better, me included. You can’t start the game that way, that’s a big thing for me.”

The Panthers opened the floodgates in the second period, helped by a landslide of Leafs mistakes. Dmitry Kulikov extended Florida’s lead with a goal tipped in by Leafs forward Scott Laughton‘s stick. Then Marner’s attempt to execute a spinning backhand pass in his own zone led to a turnover in the neutral zone that was picked up by Jesper Boqvist and snapped past Woll to give Florida a 3-0 lead midway through the second frame.

Boqvist entered the lineup in Game 5 to replace the injured Evan Rodrigues, who left Sunday’s Game 4 following a hit from Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Niko Mikkola made it 4-0 before the end of the period, giving three Florida defensemen goals on the night.

By the time A.J. Greer scored Florida’s fifth goal — the first playoff make of his career — in the third period, it was time for Toronto to make a change in net, with Woll being replaced by Matt Murray.

Frustrated fans, who had booed the Leafs off their own ice to end the second period, began throwing items onto the sheet, including a Matthews jersey. People were exiting in droves by early in the third period.

“We didn’t give them much reason to stick around,” Matthews said.

Woll finished the game with five goals on 25 shots for an .800 save percentage.

Florida wasn’t done after Woll’s departure, though, with Sam Bennett adding a power play goal to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead halfway through the third period.

Toronto’s top skaters have had no response for Florida’s suffocating pressure — or Sergei Bobrovsky‘s impressive play.

Since giving up 13 goals to Toronto through the series’ first three games, Bobrovsky has been airtight in denying the Leafs any opportunity to score.

Berube tried making adjustments. He inserted David Kampf and Nicholas Robertson into the lineup for Game 5 to try and generate a spark, and moved Max Pacioretty to the top line during the game in an effort to generate some momentum. Nothing seemed to help.

Toronto hadn’t registered a goal since 10:56 of the third period of Game 3 until Robertson put one past Bobrovsky with 90 seconds left Wednesday night. It was all too little, too late.

“Tonight, it wasn’t a good game for anybody,” Berube said. “Anybody. All of us. it was not a good game.”

Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev was quick to shoulder the burden of Toronto’s defeat, echoing a refrain heard around the locker room from players determined not to let this be the penultimate game of their season.

“I’ll take responsibility,” Tanev said. “I need to be better. If I’m a minus player [at minus-2 in Game 5], we’re probably not going to win the game. It’s on me. I’ll take responsibility for the game.”

Game 6 is Friday in Florida.

LAS VEGAS — Kasperi Kapanen scored on a scramble in front of the net at 7:14 of overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 1-0 in Game 5 on Wednesday night to advance to the Western Conference finals for the second year in a row.

The Oilers, who last season made it to the Stanley Cup Final before losing in seven games to Florida, will play Dallas or Winnipeg in the next round. The Stars, who lead their series 3-1, will go for a series win Thursday night.

Kapanen’s goal backed up another shutout performance from goalie Stuart Skinner, who made 24 saves and drew several chants of “Stu! Stu!” from Oilers fans in the crowd. Skinner, who was benched two games into the playoffs, also blanked the Golden Knights in Game 4. This was his third start in a row in replacing injured Calvin Pickard.

Adin Hill made 29 saves for Vegas.

Both teams also were involved in the two most recent scoreless playoff games to reach overtime. The Oilers lost to Winnipeg on May 21, 2021, five days after the Golden Knights were defeated by Minnesota.

Edmonton’s only other 1-0 overtime playoff victory occurred in 1997 over Dallas. Vegas has yet to win a postseason game by that score in OT.

The Golden Knights played without captain Mark Stone because of an upper-body injury that caused him to sit out most of Game 3 on Saturday. He played in Game 4 on Monday but was far from being at full health.

Neither team scored through the first two periods, and prime scoring chances were at a premium. There were only five high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, and the Golden Knights had four of them.

But each team had a grade-A chance early in the third period. Vegas’ Brett Howden whiffed on a tap-in after taking a fantastic pass from Jack Eichel, and shortly after Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl failed to convert on a breakaway. Connor McDavid had a chance on a 2-on-1 to end the game in regulation but was denied by Hill with 1:06 left.

A top Iranian official has said the country is prepared to make a number of concessions related to its nuclear programme, in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

It comes as Donald Trump, during his tour of the Middle East, urged Qatar to wield its influence over Iran to persuade it to give up its nuclear programme.

Ali Shamkhani, a top political, military and nuclear adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spoke to Sky News’ US partner NBC News.

He said Tehran was willing to commit to never making nuclear weapons again, getting rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, which can be weaponised, agree to only enrich uranium to the lower levels needed for civilian use and allow international inspectors to supervise the process.

This was in exchange for the prospect of the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions on the country.

Asked if Iran would sign an agreement today if those conditions were met, Mr Shamkhani told NBC: “Yes.”

His comments are the clearest public indication of what Iran hopes to get out of a deal and their willingness to do one.

“It’s still possible. If the Americans act as they say, for sure we can have better relations,” Mr Shamkhani added.

However, he expressed frustration at continued threats from the US president, describing them as “all barbed wire” and no olive branch.

Similarly, he warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might try to derail the deal.

Trump goes to the Middle East

Elsewhere, on the second of three stops on his tour of the Middle East, Mr Trump appealed to Qatar for help in the process.

He urged the country to use its influence over Iran to persuade its leadership to reach a deal with the US and dial back its rapidly advancing nuclear programme.

Mr Trump made the comments during a state dinner.

He said: “I hope you can help me with the Iran situation.

“It’s a perilous situation, and we want to do the right thing.”

Over the years, Qatar has played the role of intermediary between the US and Iran and its proxies – including talks with Hamas as its 19-month war with Israel grinds on.

This comes after Mr Trump told a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week that he wants “to make a deal”.

However, he said that as part of any agreement, Iran must end its support of proxy groups throughout the Middle East.

A nuclear Iran

Mr Trump has always said Iran could not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.

While Iran has always denied doing so, the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has warned that Tehran has enough enriched uranium close to weapons-grade quality for nearly six bombs.

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The US and Iran reached a nuclear deal in 2015, under Barack Obama, in which Iran agreed to drastically reduce its stockpile of uranium and limit enriching up to 3.67%.

But Mr Trump scrapped that deal in his first term.

Today, Iran enriches up to 60%, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.

Washington and Tehran have engaged in four rounds of talks since early April.