Toronto Maple Leafs

After storming back to take Game 5, Toronto is one win away from its first playoff series victory since 2004.

All the things it had not been able to do in the first period – get bodies to the net, find lanes, shoot the puck in a straight line at the target – were now doable. At 4-on-4, Tavares looped around behind the goal for so long that he drew the entire Tampa team to him magnetically. That left Morgan Rielly with the freedom Marner had had two periods earlier. Thirty seconds after the penalty expired, a puck dribbled out to Steven Stamkos standing alone in the Leafs zone: 1-0. Once again, it was a penalty that got the fire started. The Leafs stroked it around for two minutes like they were trying to wear grooves in the ice. At the other end, Leafs goalie Jack Campbell seemed to have recovered from his Game 4 yips. Because the Leafs can’t trust their own crowd to cheer, every facet of the Game Ops set-up is built around scolding people into speaking up. It occurred to you that however this series ends for the Leafs, they shouldn’t fire anyone. In the way of such things, the spark plug of the game was the Invisible Man from the first four games – Leafs captain John Tavares. And defenceman Justin Holl got an assist. Local curse talk will be trending at all-time highs on Sunday if this doesn’t work out the way the Leafs hope. The Tampa Bay Lightning goalie was not.

Auston Matthews scored the winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs recovered from an early 2-0 deficit to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Tuesday.

The Lightning were whistled for their second infraction of the night for too many men on the ice early in the second, and Toronto broke through when Nylander fired a shot that went in off the skate of Tavares for the captain’s first goal of the series. Campbell had a much quieter period at the other end, but had to make a massive stop on a Nick Paul breakaway after he stripped Morgan Rielly of the puck. The Leafs went to another power play _ the NHL’s top unit in the regular season _ but once again frustrated the home crowd by not directing much of anything on goal, prompting chants of “Shoot The Puck! Shoot The Puck!” after Matthews passed to Marner for a one-timer where the winger’s stick exploded on contact. Toronto killed off a 5-on-3 power play for 30 seconds later in the period thanks to some big stops from Campbell before Nylander broke in alone coming out of the box only to be denied by Vasilevskiy. Matthews snapped a 3-3 tie on a 2-on-1 rush in the third period after Mitch Marner fired a shot off Vasilevskiy’s right pad into the path of Toronto’s 60-goal man to bury his third of the playoffs and ignite the raucous home crowd. Down 2-1 heading to the third, Toronto tied the score with the teams playing 4-on-4 at 3:01 when Tavares, who had been criticized for his offensive output through four games, held onto the puck in the offensive zone before finding Rielly to bury his first of the series.

In a game in which they would be rightly judged, for better or curse, all five members of the Toronto Maple Leafs' scrutinized core came up with a goal, ...

I have no doubt that those guys will win a Cup one day, and when they do, I know they’ll remember all those mini-stick battles in the basement.” The hardest step,” Keefe said. They were ineffective on three power-plays and disinterested in the mini battles. Marner hooked Ryan McDonagh in the Tampa zone six seconds into a Toronto 5-on-4. The wily veteran promptly contributed an assist on Tavares’s PP goal. “They started to look tired, and that gave our team life. “That’s a hell of a hockey game. Guys were talking about it: 'Just keep coming.' I think that gave us life and confidence. Hell of an atmosphere.” “It wasn't good enough. “When he says something, everyone listens." He addressed a sinking group at intermission.

The Leafs got great games from William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, but the number-one star, and most important player of the night was Jack ...

That’s pretty close to 40% of the playoff games they’ve played in the last three years. Against Montreal they came from multi-goal deficits to force overtime twice in the series (becoming the only team to ever do that and lose both games). The Leafs had a great opportunity, and they came out flat and didn’t get any better.

The Maple Leafs, however, appear to be dressing the same roster as Game 4, with Jason Spezza, Colin Blackwell and Ondrej Kase forming the fourth forward line ...

Mikheyev - Tavares - Kerfoot "It's a tough series out there." "I haven't been able to produce offensively as I'd like," he said after the 7-3 blowout loss.