HEARTBREAKER: Maple Leafs lose to Lightning in overtime in Game 6, deciding Game 7 goes Saturday

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TAMPA — Don’t go exorcising those playoff ghosts just yet.

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The Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning will decide their best-of-seven first-round series in Game 7 in Toronto on Saturday night.

The Leafs’ elimination-game frustration continued on Thursday night at Amalie Arena, as Toronto failed to put away the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion and lost 4-3 in overtime.

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Brayden Point scored the winning goal at 18:04 of the extra period, sliding a rebound past Leafs goalie Jack Campbell.

Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made nine saves in overtime, including tough stops on Alex Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev.

Since 2018, the Leafs are 0-8 in elimination games. A ninth consecutive loss on Saturday would make a short memory of the best regular season in Leafs history, when the team set franchise records with 54 wins and 115 points.

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The game at Scotiabank Arena will mark the 26th Game 7 in Leafs history. At home, it will be their 10th, and perhaps they can take some comfort in knowing that seven of those previous nine Game 7s at home were Toronto victories.

The Leafs were holding their own with a one-goal lead as the third period progressed, but a pair of high-sticking minors to David Kampf and Kerfoot 16 seconds apart was deadly. The second, on Kerfoot, came as he battled with Tampa defenseman Victor Hedman deep in the Lightning end.

With the offense that Tampa boasts, a goal at 5-on-3 was a solid bet, and it came at 9:20 when Nikita Kucherov beat a screened Campbell to tie the game 3-3.

After a Mark Giordano turnover resulted in a goal by Anthony Cirelli at 10:46 of the second, the Leafs found themselves in an unenviable spot. The shorthanded goal gave Tampa a 2-0 lead, and at that point, Toronto hadn’t got a lot going offensively.

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Cirelli spun off Giordano and beat Campbell with a low shot for one of the most impressive goals of the series.

Part of the Leafs’ growth in maturity this season, however, has come in the form of resilience. Nine times out of 10, it’s not a team that goes away when the challenge grows.

And so it went for the remainder of the period: The Leafs scored three goals, including two in the final minute, to take a 3-2 lead into the second intermission.

Auston Matthews, revealed as one of three finalists for the Hart Trophy earlier in the day, got the rally going less than a minute after Cirelli’s goal.

Matthews deftly got his stick on a point shot by Giordano to redirect the puck past Vasilevskiy at 11:40.

The Leafs kept going at the Tampa net and got doubly rewarded as the seconds ticked off. Just 26 seconds apart, no less.

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Captain John Tavares, who had three points in the previous two games, scored both goals.

The first came at 19:26 when Tavares’ shot was stopped by Vasilevskiy and the puck went high above the crease, falling over the goal line. Jason Spezza had been given credit for the goal as it appeared he got his stick on the puck, but it eventually was awarded to Tavares.

The crowd, loud all night and especially so after the Cirelli goal, went quiet when Tavares scored again at 19:52. Tavares cleanly beat Vasilevskiy after William Nylander’s stick work and pass made the play happen.

The Leafs probably would have got to the first intermission on even ground with the Lightning had it not been for a major blunder on the part of the usually reliable Kerfoot.

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As the teams played four-on-four, Kerfoot carried the puck through the neutral zone and dropped a blind pass back to, well, no one. Kerfoot might have thought TJ Brodie was there to take the puck, but the defenseman was headed to the middle of the ice and was in no position to accept a pass.

Ondrej Palat pounced, taking the loose puck and placing a shot past Campbell, off the goalie’s right pad, and into the far side of the net. The goal came at 17:38.

Tampa outshot Toronto 12-6 in first period that was fast-paced with chances at both ends.

Nylander had a good shooting opportunity early, but chose to pass to Pierre Engvall on a two-on-one and the play fizzled.

Campbell was tested by Kucherov from the hash marks and later made a smart glove save on Kucherov.

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