In Toronto, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning scored four power play goals on eight chances on Tuesday night in a 7-3 shelling of the Maple Leafs. in Game 1 of their first round series. 
Brayden Point scored a double off the power play for the Lightning in the rout.
“I will never question the guys in that room, and again, as the coach, you always want the best, but deep down inside you know there’s a whole bunch of gamers in that room and this night we knew they would come out to play,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves in the Tampa win.
To say the Maple Leafs are gripping their sticks tightly this evening would be an understatement.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Anthony Cirelli, and Nikita Kucherov (power play) scored in the first period to give the Lightning a 3-0 lead after the fist 20.
Toronto got back in the game when Ryan O’Reilly and William Nylander hit for power play goals in the middle frame for to trim the deficit to 3-2.
Point then braced a power play goal from Corey Perry in the frame for a 6-2 advantage.
“We had a tough March, tough end to the season, but it’s about playoffs and we were trying to get our game into shape to come in here and play,” Perry said. “We know what we have to do, how we have to play as a team. We did a lot of good things tonight, but at the same time, we still have some stuff to work on.”
The Maple Leafs had four power play chances, scoring on just two of them.
“They stepped up their level and we didn’t quite do that,” the Maple Leafs Auston Matthews said. “It’s pretty simple, a bad start and a lot of penalty trouble, and they obviously have a very good power play.”
Game 2 of the series is set for Toronto on Thursday.
“I certainly sensed [nerves] in the game,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We were on our heels a bit early on. It looks like Samsonov was fighting the puck early on and he’s been in such a groove and that to me was maybe a sign of that. But I don’t think nerves have anything to do with why we don’t defend our net, allow a guy to walk out from below the goal line. Those are all things that we are as good as anybody in the NHL at defending that area of the ice.”
Ross Colton scored in the third period to give the Bolts a 7-2 lead.
“We were excited for [the playoffs],” Colton said. “For a while there we weren’t playing the way we wanted to play. We kept saying we were going to flip a switch, and at some point we had to stop talking about it and start doing it.
“Playoffs against the Maple Leafs in this building, it was obviously electric, so we just wanted to use that to our momentum. Fortunately, we got an early one and then were just able to play our game.”
Calle Jarnkrok scored at 8:06 of the third to give the Maple Leafs a better look on the scoreboard at 7-3.
Ilya Samsonov got the start for Toronto made 23 saves in the loss.
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