The Maple Leafs have finally broken their own curse. And they brought down a giant in the first round of the playoffs by eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning, the finalists of the past three years.
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Eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, or in the qualifying round in 2020, the last six springs, the Leafs have put a stop to this ugly streak by eliminating the Lightning in six games.
John Tavares liberated an entire city by scoring the game-winning goal 4:36 into extra time. The Leafs captain fired a shot that deflected off defender Darren Raddysh’s skate to force its way past Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Before this extra time, Tavares had not gotten a single shot on Vasilevskiy’s net. But we will never tell him about this statistic. It was he who got the Maple Leafs to the second round.
For the first time in 19 years, since 2004, the team with the maple leaf will therefore play a series in the second round. Matthew Knies, a rookie winger, was only a year old in 2004. That illustrates the length of the wait. Knies also collected an assist on Tavares’ winning goal.
“It’s a good feeling,” center Auston Matthews said on the ice to Sportsnet after the game. We just pulled a piano off our back. But that’s just the first step.”
In Toronto since 2016-17, Matthews experienced the feeling of a series win for the first time. It’s the same story for Mitchell Marner. Before this sixth meeting on the ice of Amalie Arena, the two star forwards had never signed a victory in ten attempts in games where elimination was at stake.
Samsonov does the job
The Lightning sold their skin dearly in this meeting. In the third period, the gang of Jon Cooper dictated the game to finally register the mark. Steven Stamkos pounced on a return shot from Raddysh to beat Ilya Samsonov.
In terms of shots on goal, the locals manhandled their rivals 11-4. After 60 minutes, the Lightning had the advantage 31-21.
Technically, the Florida team had the wind in their sails to go into overtime. Late in the third period, however, referee TJ Luxemore turned a blind eye to a high-sticking penalty to TJ Brodie against Brandon Hagel. As is too often the case, the referees did not dare to award a penalty in the last seconds of an important game.
If this bad decision helped the cause of the Leafs, the visitors also benefited from a goalkeeper at the top of his game. Very rough in the first game, Samsonov offered very good hockey for the other five games.
In this last game against the Lightning, the former Capitals goaltender was smoking with 31 saves. In overtime, he stopped a dangerous shot from winger Michael Eyssimont.
Samsonov had made headlines before the opener of this series by declaring his team to be the best in the NHL. He still has a very long way to go to prove this claim, but he took a step in the right direction by winning his duel against Vasilevskiy and the Lightning.
Matthews hits the target
To win, the Maple Leafs didn’t just need a good goaltender. They also needed input from their star players. Matthews scored the first goal in this crucial encounter. The mustachioed center finished the first round with nine points (5 goals, 4 assists) in six games.
Marner also filled the scoresheet at a good pace with 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists) in six games.
But another attacker weighed very heavily in the balance. Acquired from the St. Louis Blues, Ryan O’Reilly played a colossal role for the Leafs. In addition to his seven points, he brought a significant dose of leadership to this team.
Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe now have to breathe a little better. They reached the second round. But above all, they saved their skin. In the event of another early elimination, there would most likely have been a big sweep among the leading heads of the Maple Leafs.