The Lightning’s fourth line beat the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay squad posted a convincing 7-3 victory on Sunday night.
Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, Corey Perry and Pat Maroon not only scored one goal each, but they distracted the visitors with their intensity and relentlessness.
Perry and Maroon, two veterans who have already won the Stanley Cup, also inflicted penalties on the Maple Leafs. The referees gave Lightning eight power plays during the game, including one that went to Perry.
Ross Colton, empty netters Steven Stamkos and Ondrej Palat also scored twice for the Florida team, which rallied after suffering a 5-2 defeat on Friday night. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped for 22 pucks.
Lightning tied the series at 2-2. Both teams return today to Toronto for Game 5 on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
William Nylander scored two goals and Jake Muzzin added one for the Maple Leafs, who – so far – rank 1st of the teams with the most penalties since the start of the playoffs.
Jack Campbell started the game in the net for the Torontonians, but was dismissed after allowing five goals in 16 shots. In relief, Erik Kallgren was perfect in front of nine shots.
The game started badly for the Maple Leafs and the Lightning opened the scoring in the 60th second of the game. The visitors filled their territory and the Stamkos unleashed a violent one-timer shot that deceived Campbell’s vigilance.
The Maple Leafs were not at the end of their game, while the Lightning’s fourth line continued.
Perry took a loose puck next to the planks and sent it behind the net. Muzzin, however, turned him around in front of Campbell and Bellemare, passing by, threaded the needle. In less than three minutes, Maroon made a great individual maneuver and jumped on his own rebound to make it 3-0.
Sheldon Keefe’s staff no doubt tried to regroup in the first intermission, but they couldn’t stop their opponents ’momentum in the second period.
Lightning took the Maple Leafs defense on the wrong foot and Colton had room to get past Campbell. His shot hit the goalie’s mitt, but the puck still caused the strings to move. Just over two minutes later, in a power play, Perry completed a tic-tac-toe arranged by Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.
Nylander was good enough to give hope to his squad, flashing a red light by redirecting a pass shot from Auston Matthews and unleashing a tough, accurate one-timer, but it was too small, too late.
Source: Radio-Canada
