Well, that was unexpected.
In Toronto on Monday night, Jack Campbell made 23 saves, and the Maple Leafs shut out the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-0, in Game 1 of their first round series.
Auston Matthews hit for a double for the Maple leafs.
“I thought it was a really good effort by us,” Matthews said. “A lot of really good things that we did tonight, but it’s going to be a long series. That’s a really good team on the other end.”
Toronto killed off five penalties on the night.
“Our team seemed to be unflappable tonight,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The kills that we have early, we get an early kill, no problem. The five-minute major, no problem. We just go out, go to the face-off, get our work done. In fact, it turned into a positive, the chances we were able to generate, the life we were able to generate.
“All the way through, our team was extremely focused and went out and executed, so it was a good night for us, but it was one night. Put our head on the pillow tonight and enjoy it and wake up tomorrow and then it’s done, it’s over. The Tampa Bay Lightning will be a far better team when they come back in here.”
Jake Muzzin scored late in the first period to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead.
Matthews and David Kampf scored in the middle frame to push the lead to 3-0.
“(We) played through a long five-minute penalty kill there,” Matthews said. “Our penalty kill was huge tonight, I think that brought us a lot of momentum. ‘Soupy’ (Campbell) was incredible, and we were able to capitalize on some chances.”
Mitchell Marner scored late in the second period for a 4-0 lead, it was his first goal in 19 post season matches.
“Can’t do anything about the past,” Marner said. “I’m here to focus on the now, I’m here to focus on what I can do to help our team win.”
Matthews then added his second of the night in the third period for a 450 advantage, and the final score.
“It’s no guarantee because of our history, but we can definitely draw from it and I have the utmost confidence in our group,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.
“I’m not so sure the Maple Leafs had to play particularly well to beat us tonight. You have to win four and you don’t want to give teams any freebies, and I think we handed them a freebie tonight.”
Kampf scored shorthanded.
Tampa went scoreless in five power play chances.
“We had a couple power plays, obviously the five minute one, and some plays that were clicking the last stretch of the season were hitting a stick, hitting a skate, but at the same time, they did a good job executing on those PKs, and they gained some momentum,” Tampa’s Steve Stamkos said. “It could have been a really different game if we’d scored on that, so that was a missed opportunity.”
Matthews’ first goal was off the power play; Toronto was 1-for-7 with the extra skater.
“It’s o
ne game,” Campbell said. “We really liked the way we played, but we have to get back at it tomorrow in practice, have a good day. That’s all we’re focused on right now.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves in the Lightning loss.
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