TORONTO — The Lightning went into the third period Tuesday night just 20 minutes away from putting the Maple Leafs’ season on the brink.
Instead, the Lightning’s drive for three straight Stanley Cups is in peril, one game from elimination following a 4-3 Game 5 loss.
Despite an early two-goal lead, the Lightning couldn’t survive a furious Leafs surge, capped by two Toronto goals in a one-minute, 13-second stretch early in the third.
A strong defensive effort through the first two periods fell flat in the final period as the Lightning allowed the odd-man rushes that haunted them at times in the regular season, no miscue bigger than a turnover in the neutral zone that gave Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews a 2-on-1 breakaway that led to the winning goal by Matthews.
After quieting the home crowd in the first period, Morgan Rielly’s power-play goal 3:01 into the third brought Scotiabank Arena to life. And William Nylander’s goal at the 4:14 mark made the crowd raucous.
Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh evened the score at the 8:17 mark, but Matthews got a wrister past Andrei Vasilevskiy with 6:04 remaining.
The Lightning’s big guns struck early, with goals by Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman 52 seconds apart, each one set up by Nikita Kucherov.
