John Tavares scored his first playoff hat trick and the Toronto Maple Leafs bounced back against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, winning 7-2 to tie the series, 1-1.
Mitch Marner had two goals and an assist, William Nylander added a goal and an assist and Zach Aston-Reese also scored for the Maple Leafs.
Marner ignited the crowd with a goal 47 seconds after the initial face-off, on the power play, after Ian Cole tripped him on an earlier streak.
Tavares doubled the cushion midway through the first period, after Toronto served two penalties, moving to a 12e tripled in career.
“We wanted to respond,” said the 32-year-old, whose team lost the opener 7-3 at home. As captain, I wanted to lead by example. »
Morgan Rielly tied a team record with four assists in a game.
“That’s the kind of performance you want from your players,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. We had to play well today and we did. »
Auston Matthews had two assists and Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves as he was sent off after 40 minutes on Tuesday.
Ian Cole and Corey Perry scored for the Lightning, which was without notable defensemen in Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has played every playoff minute for the Lightning since 2020, allowed seven goals on 37 shots.
The series heads to Tampa for Games 3 and 4, Saturday and Monday.