BURN VICTIMS
Leafs can’t stand the heat in Florida, cough up three-goal lead in loss to Lightning
TAMPA — Not even a sizzling James van Riemsdyk could save his Maple Leafs teammates from getting burned on Tuesday night.
The Leafs winger scored two goals against the Tampa Bay Lightning, giving him seven in four games.
That’s the extent of anything positive from the Leafs’ view, as they suffered a loss that should stack up as their most demoralizing of the 2017-18 regular season.
The Leafs were dominating with a 3-0 lead against the 102-point Lightning, but began to fall apart late in the second period and disintegrated completely when Alex Killorn scored the winning goal at 9:14 of the third period, giving Tampa a 4-3 win.
The Leafs, who are in Nashville to face the top club in the National Hockey League on Thursday night, had their four-game winning streak snapped.
Frederik Andersen returned from missing two-plus games with an upper-body injury, but like the rest of the players in Toronto sweaters, wilted. Andersen made 21 saves.
What had appeared to be a safe Leafs lead was gone completely before the third period was four minutes old.
Nikita Kucherov scored the tying goal at 3:32 when shot toward the net, from the corner to Andersen’s left, hit Morgan Rielly’s left skate and went into the net. That prompted Leafs coach Mike Babcock to call a timeout.
The Lightning had cut the Leafs lead to one goal at 1:24 of the third when Ryan McDonagh went high on Andersen after taking a pass from Yanni Gourde.
The Leafs didn’t have many blemishes through 40 minutes, though they paid for not clearing the puck late in the second. Victor Hedman eventually scored Tampa’s first goal at 16:40, beating Andersen through a screen.
Babcock was asked in the morning whether he liked the Leafs’ blueprint, a word he had just used, with 10 games remaining.
“There’s no question we know how to play, now we just have to play that way,” Babcock said. “There are two parts to it — there is your part and the other team’s part. Sometimes the other team does not want to cooperate and let you do it.”
The Lighting ensured as much on Tuesday night.
The red-hot Leafs power play struck again at 1:29 of the second when van Riemsdyk, who can roof the puck with little-to-no-space better than anyone else in the NHL, put a rebound over Andrei Vasilevskiy’s left shoulder. That marked the Leafs’ ninth power-play goal in 13 opportunities.
Andersen made a terrific save on Anthony Cirelli after the Tampa rookie broke in alone to keep the score 2-0.
Toronto’s lead increased to three goals when Tyler Johnson turned the puck over to Zach Hyman. The Leafs forward turned a fired a shot high on Vasilevskiy’s blocker side for his 14th goal of the season.
Babcock knew his club needed a good start to give themselves a chance, and that’s what transpired in the first period.
Andersen wondered in the morning whether it would be tough to get in a rhythm after not having played in six days, but his teammates’ defence meant he didn’t have much to do.
The Leafs limited the Lightning to six shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes and just shot 12 attempts.
The 1-0 goal by van Riemsdyk came during a delayed Tampa penalty, the Leafs moving the puck around with authority until Mitch Marner, his head always up looking to make a pass, found van Riemsdyk in the slot. A shot to the blocker side on Vasilevskiy hit the back of the net and the large contingent of Leafs fans in the building roared as van Riemsdyk celebrated his 600th NHL game in style.
With the assist, Marner hit 61 points, equalling his rookie output of last season.
Tampa lost forward Ryan Callahan in the first period to an upper-body injury after he tussled with Josh Leivo along the boards.
The Leafs are scheduled to practise in Nashville on Wednesday afternoon, and we could have a better idea whether centre Auston Matthews (shoulder) and defenceman
Nikita Zaitsev (illness) return to the lineup against the Predators. Matthews has missed 10 games and Zaitsev five.
Don’t count on seeing forward Leo Komarov (leg) play in Nashville. Komarov skated on his own on Tuesday morning, wearing a be-careful red sweater.