Lacklustre Maple Leafs give up five early goals as Lightning evens up series

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TAMPA — The Maple Leafs left here Sunday with a split, but one as ugly as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

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Coach Sheldon Keefe said his team had to raise its level to match a pushback from the Lightning as the defending Cup champions had done 15 previous times following playoff losses since 2020.

Yet, instead of a statement in Game 4, they were silent in the face of an early onslaught, which ended as a 7-3 romp that evened the best-of-seven at 2-2 heading back to Toronto on Tuesday.

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It’s not just that the Bolts bounce back so impressive, but that the Leafs were terrible in every facet at this stage of the season, their 0-5 record in the first round still very much a story.

Hard to imagine a worse start for Toronto after all its Game 3 positives here. But Lightning coach Jon Cooper did say it was a matter of time before his team got to Jack Campbell and he was bang on, with five filling the net on 16 shots.

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With the Leafs unable to move the puck on the opening shift against the third line of Nick Paul, Ross Colton and Brandon Hagel, the home team was able to get its first liners in prime position. Nikita Kucherov set up Steven Stamkos for a perfect drive, Campbell unable to stop the Lightning’s best shooter this time from getting his first of the series.

That’s all it took to rattle the Leafs, a disturbing turn of events.

Jake Muzzin was then slow to react to a bouncing puck out of the corner that Campbell accidentally steered right to Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.

A second goal by a Bolts’ fourth-liner, Pat Maroon, was a consequence of Morgan Rielly losing a slow puck at Tampa’s blueline and not being able to recover. Maroon burst in and got his own rebound of a stretch pad save.

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Toronto’s fourth unit tried to inject some energy, only to have Jason Spezza get called for a cross check, the first of eight Lightning power plays.

Auston Matthews stayed out for the duration of their lone first period power play that was too pass-happy.

The second period wasn’t much better, with Colton taking a nifty backhand feed from Hagel to catch the Leafs defense flat-footed, getting the shot through Campbell’s glove. That was a sign Soupy was cold, too, though he didn’t get pulled for Erik Kallgren until a 5-on-3 goal by Corey Perry.

The Leafs parade to the box included David Kampf for delay of game and Ondrej Kase’s accidental double minor for high sticking.

Not until William Nylander tipped a Matthews man-advantage shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy early in the third and then one-timed a John Tavares pass could the Leafs mark any progress. Ondrej Palat and Colton added empty netters, between a Muzzin 4-on-4 goal.

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In the morning, Keefe was trying to keep his team level-headed, but was hardly expecting them to get swamped.

“We’d love an opportunity to go home 3-1. But they respond very well after a loss so we’re expecting their absolute best game of the series tonight. And I’m expecting our best game.

“We’ve done a good job against Stamkos and Kucherov, but it’s early. That was a priority coming in (to the series). We know what they can do on the power play, but they’re obviously very dangerous 5-on-5. We have to continue to be diligent with the puck.”

Something obviously got lost in translation between the morning meeting and puck drop. In the many media clips that preceded this series, the Leafs have conceded they have a lot to learn about the ebbs and flows of extending post-season play.

They had a chance to send a defending champion to the brink of 3-1 elimination for just the sixth time in general playoffs since 1993, but now it’s a two-out-of-three.