In Tampa, the Lightning scored early, and often in a 7-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday.
“We scored early and often,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Usually when you do that, you’re putting the team on their heels and that was the game.”
The Game 4 win evened the series, 2-2.
Game 5 is set for Tuesday in Toronto.
The Maple Leafs spent most of the game killing off penalties. Tampa was 1-for-8 on the power play.
Steve Stamkos, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare , and Pat Maroon scored in the first period to give the Lightning a 3-0 lead and thoroughly remove the Leafs from the contest.
“The first goal has been important in this series so far,” Stamkos said. “Other than that, we had a great start. That was one of our keys — to come out and play the right way — and we got rewarded for that.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves in the Lightning win.
Ross Colton and Corey Perry scored in the second period to push the Tampa lead out to 5-0.
“Anytime you can hop out to an early lead, it’s going to give our team some momentum,” Colton said. “We knew they weren’t going to go away. I think that’s a credit to the guys in the locker room that instead of sitting back and let them take it to us we kind of say, ‘Hey, let’s get the next one and the next one after that.'”
William Nylander scored twice for the Maple Leafs, in the third period, after the game was a foregone conclusion.
Jake Muzzin also scored in the third stanza for Toronto.
“We were not at the required level,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Tampa played at a higher level than us and got rewarded for it.”
Tampa entered the third period leading, 5-0.
“When we play like that … we just have to find a way to do it the next game,” Maroon said. “We know we can do it. We know what works. We know what’s successful for our team and playing the right way and playing hard, and playing the right way works.”
Ondrej Palat and Colton scored empty net goals in the third period to help ice the win.
“We just wanted to build our game and be a lot better than we were for the first two periods,” the Maple Leafs’ John Tavares said. “Go out there, win a period, play good hockey. Play to the way we’re capable of and start fresh going home.”
Colton had two goals for Tampa.
Jack Campbell got the start for the Maple Leafs, but was given the hook in the second intermission. He made 11 saves and surrendered five goals through 40 minutes of play.
Erik Kallgren made 10 saves in the third period in a mop up role.
You must be logged in to post a comment.