Maple Leafs can’t close out Lightning as series tightens and heads back to Tampa

Back to Tampa to we go.

The Tampa Bay Lightning stayed alive in its first-round series with a 4-2 Game 5 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night at Scotiabank Arena.

A late goal by Auston Matthews with Ilya Samsonov pulled gave Leaf fans hope but another third-period rally was not to be. So like so many recent playoffs, the Maple Leafs failed to eliminate an opponent when it had a chance.

Tampa’s Alex Killorn scored an empty-netter to ensure the Leafs would go 0-10 since 2018 when given an opportunity to win a playoff series. They’ll get an 11th Saturday night at Amalie Arena to win a round for the first time since 2004.

Morgan Rielly scored the game’s first goal as the Leafs otherwise struggled to get something past Andrei Vasilevskiy after much had been made that the Leafs had found a weakness on Tampa’s heralded goalie.

A motivated Vasilevskiy seemed to be trying to rebuild his reputation as a dominant playoff goalie after the Leafs managed 19 goals in the first four games. His biggest was a stopping Mitch Marner on a breakaway five minutes into the third period.

The Lightning, otherwise, played a solid road game — getting a lead and limiting the home team’s scoring chances, and in doing so protecting their goalie from Toronto’s most dangerous shooters.

Whatever the reason, the Leafs couldn’t reproduce any third-period rallying magic they showed in Tampa after Anthony Cirelli, Michael Eyssimont and Nick Paul connected for the Lightning.

The game had its heavy side. Matt Knies left during the second period after blocking a Steve Stamkos shot. Knies returned for the third period. Ditto Mark Giordano, who took a heavy hit from Pat Maroon from behind at the end of the second period.

If the Leafs can take heart in anything, it’s that the road team has won four of the five games so far in this series.

“The margin between the two teams (in the playoffs) is usually pretty small,” said Tampa coach Jon Cooper. “They’re used to winning on the road because they wouldn’t be in the playoffs if they couldn’t.”

Fan frenzy

The frenzy in anticipation of a special night started early, with the secondary market looking for as much as $4,000 for a lower-bowl ticket. Lines formed outside Maple Leaf Square at lunchtime. The “Go Leafs Go” chants started the moment the doors opened.

“The fans are second to none,” Leafs forward Noel Acciari said. “The excitement around the city is unbelievable.”

Nearly 19,000 towel-waving fans greeted their team to thunderous applause, sensing blood, praying for victory.

Amped up

The Leafs were hoping to ride the momentum of three straight wins, including two in overtime in Tampa.

“The biggest thing for us is to just focus on playing a good hockey game,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We’re a good hockey team. We’ve won lots of games. We found ways to win games in this series. I think any time we get outside of focusing on that is where all these other things start to creep in that don’t help us.”

The Lightning, as they have all series, dominated the first few minutes of the game. But it was the Leafs that scored first, and the crowd loved it. Rielly’s shot from the point eluded Andrei Vasilevskiy. John Tavares led the rush and rookie Matt Knies was in on the play.

The crowd was amped, and that seemed to amp up the Leafs. Maybe too much. On the next shift, Justin Holl went for what would have been a big crowd-pleasing hit on Brandon Hagel, who was leading a Tampa rush, but missed and lost his stick. That created an odd-man rush, and Anthony Cirelli tied the game just 26 seconds after Rielly’s goal. Both teams killed off penalties, but Samsonov was the busier of the two goalies, facing 15 shots to the nine the Leafs managed on the Tampa net.

Down after two

The Lightning took a 2-1 lead into the third period. Holl gave his critics more fodder on the only goal of the period, turning the wrong way on a rush and giving Michael Eyssimont a clear shot. He took it, beating Samsonov with a shot the goalie probably should have had. The Leafs have trailed after two periods in four of the first five games.

The big drama came at the end of the period, when Patrick Maroon levelled Mark Giordano as time expired. Giordano collapsed to the ice. Auston Matthews went after Maroon, who got was called for roughing. The Leafs clearly thought Maroon deserved more.

About the Lightning

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper remained confident in his group, and his goalie, in his remarks before the game. Andrei Vasilevskiy, after all, boasted a 4-1 record in potential series-elimination games since 2020, along with a 1.52 goals-against average, .946 save percentage and one shutout. And Cooper’s players — in a well-worn narrative — have been to the Cup final each of the last three seasons.

“We’ve had a lot of these adversity games,” Cooper said. “They have to remember the feeling and how hard it was to actually accomplish (comebacks). The Leafs are going to have some say in what goes. You have to make sure that it’s not a given. There’s actually a process to get to that final result.”

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