Panthers HC Paul Maurice pours cold water on beat down of Leafs by reminiscing 8-1 shellacking by Oilers last year 

Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice downplayed his team's dominant 6-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 5 of their second-round playoff series on Wednesday night.

Maurice cautioned that the lopsided scoreline did not tell the full story of how competitive the game was.

"The final score tells you how the game was played, but it is just not true. All of it is always closer than you think - every play, every shift… This thing is so much closer," he said via NHL.com.

To drive his point, Maurice brought up last year’s Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers. The Panthers held a commanding 3-0 series lead and were on the brink of their first title, only to get crushed 8-1 in Game 4.

Edmonton responded with two more wins to force a Game 7 in which Florida won to clinch the championship.

"We got beat 8-1 in Game 4. How does that happen? We were going to win the Cup; we don’t know that yet, but you are a pretty good team at that point… And you get beat 8-1. That tells you everything you need to know," Maurice added.

Despite the lopsided scoreline last night, the head coach maintained that the series is still up for grabs as it shifts back to Florida for Game 6.

While the Panthers have wrested momentum and are now leading 3-2, Paul Maurice cautions that the Maple Leafs are still a dangerous team capable of winning games, just as Edmonton did to his team last year after trailing 3-0.

Paul Maurice's take on Sergei Bobrovsky's performance

Florida's offense exploded with goals from six different players — Boqvist, Ekblad, Bennett, Greer, Kulikov and Mikkola — in a dominant performance. Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 31 shots to secure the win in net.

On Bobrovsky's performance, Maurice said:

"He has kind of trained himself with the style of game that we play, other than the breakaways, which is a silly thing to say. He has a fairly consistent expectation of what is going to happen next. I don’t know if it... any easier for him, but his anticipation becomes very good."

Nicholas Robertson scored Toronto’s only goal of the night. Joseph Woll gave up five goals on 25 shots before being pulled. Matt Murray took over in the third, making six saves in relief.