TORONTO — Riding a season-high five-game winning streak, the Lightning arrived at Scotiabank Arena playing some of their best hockey of the season.
Their first trip to Toronto since eliminating the Maple Leafs in last season’s opening round brought back memories of a big part of another deep postseason run. But everyone in the Lightning locker room knew there wasn’t much that separated the teams and that it could have been the Leafs who advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.
Tuesday, surging Tampa Bay had an opportunity to pull within a point of second-place Toronto in the Atlantic Division standings. But come game time, the Lightning had to battle for every shot against a defensive-minded team.
The Lightning brought out the best in the Leafs, and Toronto snapped Tampa Bay’s streak, sending it to a 4-1 loss.
The Lightning spent most of the night chasing the puck and midway through the game had just five shots on goal. Tampa Bay struggled to maintain any offensive-zone time, as Toronto pressured the puck and took away the middle of the ice from the Lightning’s stop offensive threats.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (36 saves) did what he could to keep Tampa Bay in the game, but Toronto created a number of scoring chances in front and crowded the net to take away Vasilevskiy’s line of sight.
After Michael Bunting’s game-opening goal from the high slot gave the Leafs the lead with 3:15 left in the first period, Toronto made it 2-0 on the power play. Auston Matthews’ wrister from above the left circle beat Vasilevskiy through a crowd in front.
After being outshot 29-8 over the first two periods, the Lightning pushed in the third. Coach Jon Cooper jumbled his lines, and Vladislav Namestnikov cut the deficit to one just over four minutes into the third period, scoring on his own rebound after an offensive-zone faceoff win by Steven Stamkos.
Moments after the Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy for an extra attacker, an offensive-zone turnover led to Pierre Engvall’s empty-net goal with 1:46 left. William Nylander’s empty-netter just over a minute later made it 4-1.
