Leafs rally from two goals down to push Lightning to the brink
>> Auston Matthews scored the tiebreaking goal with 6:06 left in the third period and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from an early two-goal deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Tuesday night and take a 3-2 lead in the first-round playoff series.
William Nylander added a goal and two assists for Toronto, which is a victory away from advancing in the postseason for the first time since 2004. John Tavares had a goal and assist, and Morgan Rielly also scored. Jack Campbell stopped 32 shots.
Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh scored, Nikita Kucherov had two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves for the twotime defending Stanley Cup champion Lightning, who will try to avoid elimination in the best-of-seven series in Game 6 at home on Thursday night.
Game 7, if necessary, would be in Toronto on Saturday.
Matthews snapped a 3-3 tie on a 2-on-1 rush in the third period. Mitch Marner fired a shot off Vasilevskiy's right pad and Matthews, ,who had 60 goals during the regular season, scored his third of the playoffs to ignite the raucous home crowd.
The Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy late and had a couple of chances, but iced the puck with 21.9 seconds left to force the 2021 Conn Smythe Trophy winner
back into his crease.
Down 2-1 heading to the third, Toronto tied the score with the teams playing 4 on 4 at 3:01 when Tavares held onto the puck in the offensive zone before finding Rielly, who scored his first of the series.
The Leafs took their first lead when Nylander scored his third goal in the last two games on Vasilevskiy.
But the Lightning responded at 8:17, when McDonagh blasted a shot past
Campbell, tying the game at 3 before Matthews won it.
The Maple Leafs were coming off a 7-3 loss to Tampa Bay in Game 4. HURRICANES 5, BRUINS 1 >> Rookie Seth Jarvis scored twice and Antti Raanta finished with 34 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 5-1 on Tuesday night for a 3-2 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Tony DeAngelo scored first-period goals for the Hurricanes, and Vincent Trocheck added an empty-netter.
The series has yet to see a team secure a road win. It wasn't close to happening in this one, either, with the Hurricanes playing from in front and carrying the action in a much cleaner performance than their mistake-filled showings in Boston.
With the Game 5 win, the Hurricanes have two chances to close out the Bruins. Game 6 is Thursday in Boston, and Game 7, if needed, on home ice Saturday.