Lightning wins the first game of the series despite Leafs’ egg-laying in Game 1.
TORONTO — Brayden Point scored twice and Nikita Kucherov, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Corey Perry, Ross Colton and Anthony Cirelli added singles as the Tampa Bay Lightning comprehensively routed the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-3 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Bellemare, who had scored one minute and eighteen seconds earlier, opened the scoring after a Zach Aston Reese giveaway. The Maple Leafs defender Mark Giordano was unable to stop the shot.
Cirelli added a second goal exactly six minutes after that, and Kucherov added a third with just four seconds left in the period. The Lightning went into the first half of the game leading 3-0.
The Maple Leafs received a special award for their efforts soundly booed off the ice by the Scotiabank Arena crowd The Maple Leafs never recovered. Toronto got on the board when Ryan O’Reilly notched a power-play marker eight minutes into the second frame, and William Nylander briefly gave the Maple Leafs some semblance of hope with another power-play goal five minutes later to inject some life back into the building.
But that was as close as Toronto would get, as Point scored his first of two goals and Perry added another — which was upheld upon review — before Point notched his second with 1.1 ticks remaining in the middle frame.
Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov was replaced by Joseph Woll for the third period, but it didn’t stop the onslaught. Seven minutes into the third period, Ross Colton gave the Lightning a 7-2 advantage. Any hope of a comeback vanished. Samsonov conceded six goals on 29 attempts.
Calle Jarnkrok scored Toronto’s third goal of the game, tapping a feed from Mitch Marner into an empty cage. It’s telling that the Maple Leafs elected not to celebrate after Jarnkrok’s tally.
Michael Bunting was assessed a match penalty during the second period after delivering an elbow to Erik Cernak’s head. Cernak was forced to leave the game while Bunting’s protests were in vain.
Michael Eyssimont, Victor Hedman, and Victor Hedman also didn’t return for the Lightning because of injuries.
There’s more to come