Florida briefly limited ticket sales for their playoff series against Toronto to fans with U.S. credit cards, a decision that some Maple Leafs fans thought was designed keep them from coming to Games 3 and 4.

The Panthers might be able to keep them from a Game 5 in Toronto, too.

Sam Reinhart scored 3:02 into overtime and the Panthers — who had to fight just to squeak into the playoffs, then stunned Boston in Round 1 — are on the brink of their first conference finals appearance since 1996. Florida topped Toronto 3-2 on Sunday night, taking a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

“We’ve had a lot of guys stepping up at big moments,” Reinhart said.

None bigger than he did to win it. Reinhart dumped the puck off the boards behind the net to set up his game-winner, then headed behind the goal to take a pass back from Anton Lundell. Reinhart twirled his way to the front, tapped the puck home and just like that, Florida had its first series lead in 27 years.

“There’s a lot of things going our way,” said Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad, whose team has won six consecutive playoff games for the first time in franchise history. “We’re just trying to take it day by day ... just doing the right things to make us successful.”

Anthony Duclair and Carter Verhaeghe scored for Florida. Sam Lafferty and Erik Gustafsson scored for Toronto, which had plenty of fans there — ticket sales for all opened 24 hours after the online purchasing window opened last week.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 22 shots for the Panthers. Joseph Woll stopped 18 of the 21 he faced for the Maple Leafs after he relieved starter Ilya Samsonov, who stopped all eight shots he saw before leaving 37 seconds into the second period with an undisclosed injury.

DEVILS 8, HURRICANES 4 >> Jack Hughes had two goals and two assists to help New Jersey cut their series deficit to 2-1.

Nico Hischier and Ondrej Palat each had a goal and an assist, and Timo Meier, Damon Severson, Michael McLeod and Miles Wood also scored for the Devils. Dawson Mercer had three assists, and Jesper Bratt, John Marino and Luke Hughes each added two. Vitek Vanecek returned to the net and made 26 saves.

The eight goals were the most for the Devils in a playoff game since they beat Washington 10-4 on April 22, 1988.

Carolina set an NHL record, scoring three short-handed goals in the game. Jordan Martinook scored on a penalty shot in the second period with the Canes down a man and Jordan Staal and Seth Jarvis scored 50 seconds apart on the same penalty kill in the third.

Kraken 7, stars 2 >> Jordan Eberle sparked a five-goal outburst in the second period outburst with his fourth goal of the playoffs, and Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves as Seattle beat Dallas to take a 2-1 series lead in their Western Conference semifinal. Eberle was the recipient of an unfortunate bounce, beating Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger at 2:10 of the second period after the puck hit Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen in the face and fell to Eberle’s stick.

That was just the start for Seattle. Alex Wennberg doubled the lead 1:26 after Eberle’s goal; Carson Soucy beat Oettinger five-hole at 6:30; and Matty Beniers made it 4-0 at 8:22. Seattle’s first four shots of the period beat Oettinger, and the Kraken made it 5-1 when Eeli Tolvanen finished a rebound with 37 seconds left in the period.