Paul’s two goals lead Lightning past Leafs
Nick Paul came through with the best playoff performance of his career when the Tampa Bay Lightning needed it most and the two-time defending champions are moving on again.
Paul scored twice, including an incredible individual effort on the tiebreaking goal late in the second period, and the Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in Game 7 on Saturday night to win their first-round playoff series.
“The electricity in this building was nuts,” said Paul, a native of Mississauga, Ontario. “To come in and work as hard as we did, there was no doubt in our game. We stuck together.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots for the Lightning.
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.
“A great hockey team,” Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos said of the Maple Leafs. “They’ve got all the pieces. It’s not easy this time of the year. We’ve had some failures in the past … you just move on and you just gotta get over that hump.”
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.
“It’s hard to explain,” Toronto captain John Tavares said. “It’s frustrating, hard to fathom. It stings, it hurts, it’s disappointing.”
Toronto is now 7-3 alltime at home in Game 7s, including a loss at Scotiabank Arena last season after blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens.
“A game of inches,” said Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews, who scored 60 goals during the regular season and four more in playoffs. “Unfortunately we’re on the bad side of things tonight. It’s really frustrating. Every guy in there competed and gave it their all. They made one more play than us.”
Down 1-0 after 20 minutes in this one, the Maple Leafs appeared to tie the score at 11:28 of the second when 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.
LATE SATURDAY
Oilers 2, Kings 0:
Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist as host Edmonton advanced through to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, beating Los Angeles in Game 7.
Cody Ceci also scored and Mike Smith made 28 saves for his second shutout of the playoffs for the Oilers, who last won a Game 7 in 1998 and celebrated their first playoff series win since 2017.
Jonathan Quick made 39 saves for the Kings, who have not won a playoff series since they won their second Stanley Cup in 2014 – also the last year they won a series in a Game 7.
The Oilers will now advance to play either Calgary or Dallas, who are going to a Game 7 of their own on Sunday.