LEAFS HOLD OFF BOLTS TO GRAB SERIES LEAD
Toronto inserts veteran Spezza into lineup and gets back to hockey-first approach
Three-peat T-shirts are big around this town, but 5-on-5 is the number the Toronto Maple Leafs have to keep in mind if they want to dress for success.
Putting their focus back on speed, skill and scrappy defence at even strength that doesn't cross the line, they earned a 5-2 win Friday night at Amalie Arena and a 2-1 series lead on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Not that anyone expected the 115-point Leafs to go away after dropping Game 2 — in which they scored the last two in a 5-3 loss — but it had to be expected that Friday's 3-0 lead would not be safe. They had to hang on for dear life, with Tampa pressing the last two minutes with goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled before two Ilya Mikheyev empty netters, his first two NHL playoff goals. Game 4 is here Sunday.
In a loud arena with just a trickle of the normal Toronto fan contingent, the Bolts went for the jugular off the faceoff, with Ilya Lyubushkin bumped off the puck and Brayden Point winding up from the slot. Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell came out quickly to block it, as he did on a couple of teammates' early miscues. His best work among 31 saves came during a late-game power play, in particular stretching across to get his body on a Steven Stamkos one-timer.
Campbell's first set of stops allowed Toronto to steady itself and take a 1-0 lead late in a power play where Auston Matthews and the No. 1 group were squeezing their sticks a bit. A Matthews drive as he prepared to change lines hit traffic including Michael Bunting's skate and went to Morgan Rielly down low, and he pumped it into the net. Mitch Marner picked up the assist to take the Leaf series lead with six points. Lyubushkin took a bad penalty to give the Bolts a way back in, but they couldn't capitalize after a 3-for-7 night on the power play in Game 2 had buried the Leafs. And the lumbering Lyubushkin stepped out of the box to take the puck and showed remarkable patience on a 3-on-1, using Pierre Engvall as a screen and dropping to Colin Blackwell for his first NHL playoff goal.
In the second period, after a 25-second two-man advantage for the Leafs went for naught, David Kampf converted a turnover into another odd-man rush and beat Vasilevskiy for the second time in this series. The Leafs have an impressive record of 13-0-0 this season when Kampf scores and he helped them keep the upper hand on faceoffs.
Ross Colton did dent Campbell on the man advantage with Justin Holl in the box and hit the post later. Matthews was halted on an early third-period breakaway trying to go five-hole and in short order, then Ondrej Palat put a high wrister over namesake Ondrej Kase at the 5:43 mark of the period pull the Lightning within 3-2. Mostly, the teams steered clear of any nonsense after whistles, each absorbing hard lessons. A key move to bring the Leafs back to that hockey-first mentality was getting Jason Spezza in the lineup.
The veteran of 93 post-season games on top of 1,248 in the regular season was the called on as coach Sheldon Keefe recalibrated his decision to match the heavy lineup of the Bolts with his own fourth-line armour. The 38-year-old Spezza replaced Wayne Simmonds, while Keefe also chose to leave Kyle Clifford out after his one-game suspension for a late hit in the series' opener. Winger Kase was not at the morning skate on what was termed a personal issue, but made it back to his spot with John Tavares and William Nylander.