TAMPA – The Toronto Maple Leafs trailed the Lightning, 4-1 entering the third period.
Auston Matthews hit for a double to put them within 4-3, and Morgan Reilly scored with just under four minutes left on the regulation clock to even the game, 4-4.
“I thought we came out in the third and played well,” Rielly said. “I thought we were playing well before that. We were in a position going into the third down 4-1, that’s not where you want to be. But to have the compete and the jam to go out there and come back is a good sign.”
Matthews’ second goal came off the power play on a tip from a shot at the right point.
Alexander Kerfoot completed the rally when hit off the power play at 4:14 of the extra session.
“That’s what you dream about, scoring goals in overtime in the playoffs,” Kerfoot said. “There was a lot of belief in that room after the first two periods. We started to put the heat on them a little bit and our big guys came through and got it to overtime.”
Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves in the win.
“We were on pucks, we were getting pucks behind them and strong with our forecheck and we made it hard on them,” Tampa Bay forward Anthony Cirelli said. “I think we got away from that a little bit in the third period, too much sitting back.”
Alex Killorn and Mikhail Sergachev scored in the first period to stake the Lightning to a 2-0 lead.
“It was all going good, but in the end special teams became a factor in the game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “They got two big power-play goals in the end and we didn’t cash in on our chance early in the third. Take one of theirs away or we get one … it’s a different story.”
Game 5 is in Toronto on Thursday.
“I hope that we look at this as a positive sign of the spirit of our team and what we can overcome,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I hope they take that and recognize that we have to keep pushing. The team we found a way to beat tonight, they are who they are because they very rarely lose two in a row, obviously don’t lose three in a row very often and winning four in a row is going to be even harder. That’s not lost on us.”
Noel Acciari scored at 4:51 of the middle frame to trim the deficit to 2-1 for the Maple Leafs.
“About halfway through the second period, we started to find our game a little bit and the ice started to shift a little bit even though we were down by three,” Matthews said. “But the attitude and the mindset in the locker room was to just go out there and chip away.”
Tampa replied with a goal from Steven Stamkos for a 3-1 advantage at 11;31.
Killorn scored his second of the game with 1:12 left in the second period off a wrist shot from the left wing through a screen for a 4-1 lead.
“This is a difficult one to process at the moment,” Killorn said. “Having that lead and letting it slip away is tough, but we’ve got to get over it. They’re a good team and their big-time players came through in a big way and I think we just sat back too much. We were a little too comfortable with that lead.”
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Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves in the Tampa loss.
“We’ve scored enough goals to win, but in the end you’ve got to keep them out of the net,” Cooper said. “You can’t be giving up this amount of goals. I don’t care if it’s the regular season or playoffs especially. You put four on the board and that should be a win. But in the end, you’ve got to defend and keep the puck out of your net. We didn’t do it enough.”
PHOTO CREDIT – Bill.Kober@prohockeynews.com
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