In Toronto, Auston Matthews scored in the third period to snap a 3-3 tie with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night to end the Maple Leafs to a 4-3 win, and 3-2 series lead.
“That felt good,” Matthews said. “Just the crowd, the energy, there’s nothing like a playoff atmosphere especially here in Toronto. It was pretty special. It was a big win for us but there’s still some work to be done. It’s a good night just to battle back down two goals, never losing hope and just competing but like I said, the job is not done.”
Game 6 is set for Thursday in Tampa.
Jack Campbell made 31 saves in the Maple Leafs win.
“He kept us in the game,” the Leafs’ William Nylander said. “I mean he’s been doing that all year. It’s incredible to see him make huge save regardless of the score. I think he’s been incredible, and we just have to help him next game.”
Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman staked the Lightning to a 2-0 lad in the first period.
“We’re here to win the series,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “We lost a game tonight; we let this one slip away, that’s on us. But we haven’t let the series slip away; we let a game slip away so that’s how you look at it. Play it game by game.”
Hedman scored off the power play.
“We knew that they were going to push and you have to give them credit,” Stamkos said. “It was a tremendous start for us, the start we wanted. It’s usually one of those bad omens when you get an extended 5-on-3 and you don’t score, I always say that’s kind of a rule. It wasn’t for lack of looks, we had some unbelievable looks and that could kind of ice the game early, go up 3-0 so I was disappointed that we didn’t execute. We just sat back too much and got away from our game plan.”
John Tavares got the Maple Leafs on the board in the middle frame to trim the Tampa lead to 2-1, his goal was off the man advantage.
IN the third period, Morgan Rielly tied the game, 2-2, for Toronto, and Nylander put the Leafs ahead 3-2 just 73 seconds later.
“That’s the best team in the NHL in the third period in terms of not giving up much and defending leads and they certainly know how to win,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We got some ice at 4-on-4 and it was a big time play by John to (Rielly), great play by (Mikheyev) to (Nylander) and an incredible shot and all of a sudden you have a lead.
“We gave that back to them but then another big time play by Mitch and Auston connecting there. That’s what you’re looking for at key times, a big game like this, you need to best people to step up and make a difference and they certainly did that. And Jack Campbell was probably the key to this whole thing here today. He kept them at two for a long time and gave us a chance to come back.”
Ryan McDonagh tied the game, 3-3, for the Lightning at 8:17 of the third period.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves in the Tampa loss.
“We’re not really making them earn it, we’re kind of giving it to them,” Cooper said.
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