This guy has to be beautiful, we repeated in Toronto, but the Maple Leafs didn’t succeed with their demons on Saturday. The Torontonians were again eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, this time by the Lightning. Tampa Bay won 2-1 in the series finale.
So Toronto saw its consecutive fall short of the second round of the playoffs spanning 18 years. It’s one of the five longest streaks in NHL history.
Forward Nick Paul, who got past the Lightning trade deadline, played heroes for the Florida team. The Mississauga native hit his childhood team by scoring his two goals, his first two in the playoffs.
Paul first pushed the rebound from teammate Ross Colton to Jack Campbell late in the first period to open up the scoring.
The Maple Leafs thought they had scored the tying goal in the second period when John Tavares did it all alone around the Lightning net before beating Andrei Vasilevskiy by a shot at the top of the net. However, defender Justin Holl blocked the streak. The goal is not allowed.
Defenseman Morgan Rielly finally comforted Toronto fans with 6:35 left in the second period. He put an end to climbing enemy territory with Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.
Paul scored his second goal of the game after a few more good chances with the Leafs scoring. He ignored the traffic in front of Campbell’s net to return the lead to his team.
Ontario itself almost added four minutes after the start of the final period. He charged at full speed in the Toronto net when he was unable to slip the puck behind Campbell.
The Maple Leafs got a valuable power play with 13:41 remaining in the third period, but they couldn’t capitalize on it, ending the game without goals on three occasions to one man’s advantage.
Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy booked his best performance of the series for Game 7. He held 30 of the 31 shots he faced, allowing at least three goals in each of the previous six games.
More details to come.
Source: Radio-Canada