TORONTO | It’s not just the Montreal market that can be impatient with its star players. That of the Toronto region has nothing to envy.
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Between the fourth and fifth games of this series, John Tavares was the target of much criticism.
Putting his $11 million mark on the Maple Leafs’ payroll on his nose, many of them argued that the return on investment was not very high.
Again in the morning, Mitch Marner and Mark Giordano had to come to his defense by recalling that he was “an outstanding leader” and a “fierce competitor on the ice”.
The captain in Toronto, who had himself admitted at the end of the fourth game that he wanted to do more, without necessarily forgetting to apply himself well in “the little details”, responded in a good way last night.
It was Auston Matthews’ goal that was decisive, but the Ontarian’s two-point night also guided the Queen City representatives to a 4-3 victory over the Lightning.
“This one is good, supported the number 34, who had not hit the target since his double in the first game. The energy of the crowd, the atmosphere in the building, it was special. »
Special mention also to William Nylander, author of a goal and two assists.
A punishment that changes everything
The Torontonians thus take an option on this first-round confrontation. The band in Matthews will have the opportunity to eliminate that of Steven Stamkos, tomorrow evening, in Tampa. The Maple Leafs would advance to the second round for the first time since 2004.
A win for the Leafs, however, this is not the tangent that this meeting had taken. Two goals scored within 52 seconds by Stamkos and Victor Hedman, in the sixth and seventh minutes of the game, gave the impression that it would still be a one-sided game.
That was until the Lightning got penalized for having too many players on the rink…for the second time that night.
Campbell’s Redemption
In fact, this penalty would possibly have had no impact if Jack Campbell had not stopped a shot by Nick Paul, at close range, with the score 2-0.
Moreover, we have, in a way, witnessed the redemption of the Leafs goalkeeper. Withdrawn after allowing five goals on 16 shots on Sunday, he kept his team in the game and preserved their lead on more than one occasion.
Paul, who broke away from him, and Nikita Kucherov, who witnessed a miraculous stoppage, were among his victims.
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Auston Matthews
Great players are required to stand up when it matters. That’s exactly what this 60-goal scorer did in giving his team the win
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too many players
You have to be in the rare moon to take two penalties for having too many players on the ice in the same duel That’s how the Lightning got the Leafs back in the game
First period
1-VG: Steven Stamkos (2)
(Palat, Kucherov)5:19
2-TB: Victor Hedman (2)
(Kucherov, Killorn)AN-6:11
Penalties: Bench penalty (TB) (served by Perry) 2:51, Brodie (Tor) 5:50, Nylander (Tor) 9:47, Giordano (Tor) 11:17, Point (TB) 15:21, Bogosian (TB) 18:37, Marner (Tor) 18:43
Second period
3-TOR: John Tavares (1)
(Nylander, Giordano)AN-3:35
Penalties: Bench penalty (TB) (served by Perry) 2:51, Stamkos (TB) 8:59
Third period
4-TOR: Morgan Rielly (2)
(Tavares, Nylander)3:01
5-TOR: William Nylander (3)
(Mikheyev, Holl)4:14
6-TB: Ryan McDonagh (1)
(Colton, Paul)DN-8:17
7-TOR: Auston Matthews (3)
(Marner, Bunting)AN-13:54
Penalties: Kampf (Tor) 2:15, Stamkos (TB) 2:25
Shoot to the net
TAMPA BAY 14 – 9 – 12 – 35TORONTO 4 – 14 – 8 – 26
Guardians:
TB: Andrei Vasilevskiy (P, 2-3), TOR: Jack Campbell (G, 3-2)
Numerical advantages:
TB: 1 in 5, TOR: 2 in 6
Referees:
Trevor Hanson, Jean Hebert
Linesmen:
David Brisebois, Derek Nansen
ASSISTANCE:
19,434
What we noticed…
Shoot the puck!
If the Leafs hope to survive this first round, their massive offense will have to get going. Before the game, the Torontonians had scored just three goals in 18 chances (16.7%) since the start of the series. They had fired only 27 shots, or 1.5 per massive attack. A ratio clearly insufficient to score with regularity, but enough for the supporters of the team to start singing: “ Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck! It ended up paying off, with John Tavares putting the Leafs on the scoreboard that way.
Matthews released
The ice advantage served the Auston Matthews trio, allowing them to be freed from the clutches of the Brayden Point unit often. According to naturalstattrick.com, he and Mitch Marner had shot attempts 21-7 and 10-4.
Kucherov climbs
Nikita Kucherov continues to climb the ranks within the brotherhood of active players. His two assists brought his playoff points total to 134. He joined Joe Thornton as the fourth-ranked hockey player who has yet to announce their retirement. Sidney Crosby (200), Evgeni Malkin (177) and Alex Ovechkin (140) are ahead of him.