IN Tampa, the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs broke out to a 3-0 lead on Friday night and then held off the Lighting for a 5-2 win.
The victory gives the Maple Leafs a 2-1 series.
Game 4 is in on Sunday in Tampa.
Jack Campbell made 32 saves in the Maple Leafs win.
“Coming into this rink, it’s a tough rink,” Campbell said. “Their fans are into it and their team is always buzzing. We did a great job of having a strong start tonight, especially after Game 2 (a 5-3 loss on Wednesday). The sacrifices every single guy was making in front of me tonight, blocking shots, getting into lanes, and making it tough to get things to the net, was huge.”
Morgan Rielly and Colin Blackwell scored in the first period for a 2-0 lead for Toronto.
“Getting out to the lead early really benefited us,” the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews said. “‘Soup’ made some unbelievable saves. All throughout our lineup guys stepped up when they had to and made plays when they needed to be made.”
David Kampf pushed the advantage to 3-0 in the middle frame.
“The puck was in the neutral zone and I took it,” Kampf said. “It was almost 2-on-1 and I just tried to shoot it between his legs and it goes in. I’m very happy for it.”
Tampa’s Ross Colton scored off the power play in the middle frame to stop the Maple Leafs three-goal run and cut their lead to 3-1.
“We pushed, but sitting up here now we’re still down 2-1 (in the series),” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “We can sit here and pat ourselves on the back all night long and say, ‘Hey, great job pushing at the end,’ [but] it’s still … you’re down 2-1.”
Tampa got closer with a strike from Ondrej Palat in the third period to make it 3-2.
“Cal [Foote] had a nice shot, and I think it hit [Brandon] Hagel’s stick and then got to me right on the back door,” Colton said. “I think it went cross-crease and hit the other post. Just an unlucky bounce.”
Ilya Mikheyev scored two empty net goals late in the third period for the 5-2 final.
“Our penalty killers are amazing in front of me, and they’ve been doing well all season,” Campbell said. “Sometimes the quality of players that Tampa has, they’re going to make great plays. They made a great play there (to set up the Stamkos shot), and fortunately it stayed out.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves in the Tampa loss.
“It’s not ideal to be behind, you are going to be behind at times and they did force us to chase it,” Cooper said. “But it’s just hard to chase it when you’re in the penalty box the whole time. When you don’t take any penalties, like we did in the third, and you have a pretty good period.”
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