Paul leads Lightning to Game 7 victory over Maple Leafs
Nick Paul scored twice, including an incredible individual effort on the tiebreaking goal late in the second period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in Game 7 on Saturday night to win their first-round playoff series.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots for the twotime defending Stanley Cup champions.
Morgan Rielly scored for Toronto, which hasn't reached the second round since 2004 and is now 0-9 in elimination games over the last five postseasons after also losing 4-3 in Game 6 at Tampa, Florida, two nights earlier. Jack Campbell had 23 saves.
The Maple Leafs were once again unable to push through and finally flip a long, ugly narrative of playoff failures for a franchise that has now lost its last seven series, including six straight dating back to 2017.
Toronto is now 7-3 all-time at home in Game 7s, including a loss at Scotiabank Arena last season after
blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens.
Down 1-0 after 20 minutes in this one, the Maple Leafs appeared to tie the score at 11:28 of the second when
John Tavares roofed a shot on Vasilevskiy, but the goal was waved off after Toronto defenseman Justin Holl was whistled for interference.
Campbell had to make a couple of desperation stops
on the ensuing penalty kill to set the stage for Rielly's equalizer off a setup from Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews to score his third of the playoffs at 6:35 to send the crowd of 19,316 into a
chaotic frenzy.
The goal was the first surrendered by Vasilevskiy and the Lightning in their last six series-deciding games.
William Nylander then missed high on a breakaway and the Tampa goaltender robbed Matthews with the Maple Leafs buzzing.
But Paul scored his second of the night — and second ever in the playoffs — with 3:28 remaining in the period on a terrific play where he kicked the puck from his skate to his stick.
HURRICANES 3, BRUINS 2 >>
Max Domi scored twice in the second period while Antti Raanta had 27 saves to help Carolina beat Boston to win the deciding Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.
Teuvo Teravainen also scored for the Hurricanes, who finally put away a Bruins team that had ousted them from the playoffs in two of the past three postseasons. That ended a series in which neither team could manage a road win, with the Hurricanes eventually getting the final word backed by yet another rowdy and loud home crowd.
Carolina advanced to the second round to face the winner of today's Game 7 between the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Domi was an unlikely star in this one. Carolina acquired him ahead of the March trade deadline, and he rewarded them by scoring the first postseason goals of his career. He also assisted on Teravainen's goal.
Raanta, who had never started a postseason game before this series, was again steady in net. He had probably his best stop on a fullsplit save to deny Taylor Hall near the left post in the first period of a scoreless game.