In Toronto, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning put a strong effort across the bench on Wednesday night in a 4-1 win over the Maple Leafs. 
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves in the win.
The Lightning improved to 42-26-7.
Tampa is now four points back of the Maple Leafs for third in the Atlantic Division.
Tampa had gone without a shot on goal until midway through the opening stanza, when Victor Hedman scored to stake the Lightning to a 1-0 lead, scoring off a shot from the point that found its way through a maze of sticks and legs.
“I think the whole bench knew we had a lot better (after the first period),” Tampa’s Brandon Hagel said. “It wasn’t a specific thing, it was just everyone could feel it on the bench that it wasn’t going our way right now and there was lots of room for improvement, and we were able to come out of that first period in a good spot and were able to respond in the second and obviously the third.”
“I thought we had a good first, and then come period two, we had our moments, but we just gave too much I think against a good team,” Toronto’s Morgan Rielly said.
Auston Matthews was the lone strike for the Maple Leafs, his 63rd goal of the season came with 60 seconds left in the first to tie the game, 1-1.
“You make little mistakes, letdowns in the defensive end, and obviously there’s a lot of skill, a lot of talent on that team and they make you pay,” Matthews said. “We kind of dug ourselves a hole there and we couldn’t climb out of it. Especially in the third I thought we were pretty flat.”
The Maple Leafs dropped to 43-23-9, snapping a three-game streak.
Toronto missed a chance to clinch a playoff berth with a point.
Tampa’s Brayden Point scored at 2:54 of the middle frame to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead, scoring off a backhand down low.
Steven Stamkos pushed the advantage to 3=1 when he added a marker at 8:47, scoring off a shot from the left circle on an odd man rush.
In the third period, Nicholas Paul extended the advantage to 4-1 14:19, scoring off a shot from the right circle that was a laser. 
Joseph Woll made 21 saves in the loss..
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