Bolts snap Leafs 4-game win streak
TAMPA, FLA. • New- look Toronto Maple Leafs, but not the same old result.
With Tomas Plekanec making his Leafs debut and representing the lone acquisition general manager Lou Lamoriello made before the NHL trade deadline hit, the Leafs were unable to play with consistency against the club atop the NHL standings, losing 4-3 in a shootout to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night at Amalie Arena.
Brayden Point scored the only goal in the shootout in a game that might have been a preview of a first- round matchup.
The Leafs’ four-game winning streak ended, and they lost for just the third time in 16 games.
Tyler Bozak had scored the tying goal at 5: 27 of the third, beating Andrei Vasilevskiy on the short side after the Leafs moved the puck around on the power play.
With the game tied 3- 3, Mitch Marner was awarded a penalty shot with six minutes remaining, but was stopped by Vasilevskiy on a forehand deke.
Down 2- 1 entering the second period, the Lightning scored a pair of goals to take a 3- 2 lead into the second intermission.
The go- ahead goal by Adam Erne at 15: 18 was one that had Frederik Andersen wincing. After Roman Polak and William Nylander couldn’t team up to clear the puck, Erne took control and beat Andersen along the ice from the high slot. Andersen has not given up many weak goals this season. That was one.
Not long after the Erne goal, the Leafs nearly scored when a shot got through Vasilevskiy and rolled across the goal- line, but did not cross it. Mitch Marner nearly poked the puck in before it was knocked away by a Tampa defender.
Tyler Johnson tied the game at 3:52 when he got his own rebound, swept around the net and scored as Polak, in front, was slow to respond.
It didn’t help the Leafs’ cause that they were unable to score during a two- man advantage that lasted 46 seconds. Morgan Rielly hit the post, but Toronto got no closer to scoring.
Tampa’s Chris Kunitz opened the scoring at 1:41 of the first period when he deflected an Andrej Sustr shot past Andersen.
The Toronto goals came one minute, three seconds apart, and like Kunitz’s goal, were off deflections.
Ja m e s van Riemsdyk scored his 26th at 8: 49, getting his stick on a Ron Hainsey shot, enough to re-direct the puck between Vasilevskiy’s legs.
At 9:52, Marner continued his hot ways when Jake Gardiner’s pass went off Marner’s skate and slipped past Vasilevskiy. The goal was Marner’s 12th in 18 games after he had gone nine games in a row without scoring. It also was Marner’s 12th since Jan. 20, tied for the secondmost in the NHL in that span after Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, who has 15.