Maple Leafs’ big four come up huge in win over Tampa Bay Lightning

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The Stanley Cup playoffs arrived in Toronto in time for Game 5 Tuesday night, in all its splendor with breathtaking drama and intrigue, with leads and lead changes, with great goaltending, with the kind of game Jon Cooper expected when this series began.

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Somebody had to lose this game — and maybe because of it they lose this first-round playoff series.

Somebody on Tuesday night served better than defeat.

And the Maple Leafs will happily take the victory they deserved and very much needed. This was the kind of game that makes us fall in love with teams and games and need to believe in everything that can happen at this time of the year. The defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning were excellent early on and the Leafs caught up and then Toronto took the lead. And then Tampa tied the game in the third period. This was back, forth, back and forth some more, with Auston Matthews scoring the largest playoff goal of his life on a Mitch Marner rebound with 6:06 to play in one of those playoff games that we’ll file away in our personal memory banks and hold it on to it forever.

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On the same night, with everything going against the Leafs earlier, with the mountain seemingly too high to climb, the Big Four of the Leafs managed what they’ve rarely been able to do in concert before. They all put it together on the very same night.

The $40 Million Four — so much of the question about what makes this hockey club so effective and so historically challenged — made it possible for the Leafs to now be in a position to win one more game and advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

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A place they haven’t been since 2004.

On a loud and frenetic Tuesday night, the Leafs bounced around they’ve rarely bounced before in the Stanley Cup playoffs, dancing and racing and willing themselves emotionally and physically to a stirring come from behind 4-3 win over the defending champions.

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The Leafs lead the series 3-2 with Game 6 in Tampa on Thursday night.

This wasn’t a night of winner take all, one game for everything, but it sure felt that way, especially early on. This was a game of drama and doubt and more drama. The Leafs were in trouble early. They came back and tied the game and took the first come from behind the lead of the series. They went up 3-2. Tampa tied it 3-3.

And the big boys came through the way they’ve had to for this team so much of this great season — Auston Matthews scoring the winning goal, on a rebound off a Mitch Marner shot. Both Matthews and Marner were huge in the final two periods of this spectacular comeback.

But in many ways the night belonged to William Nylander, who shot a puck off John Tavares for the Leafs first goal, made the play that led Tavares to find Morgan Rielly to tie the game. And then Nylander scored, a wrist shot off the past Andrei Vasilevskiy, to make it 3-2 Leafs early in the third period.

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In between the goal and the setups by Nylander, he had a breakaway and a semi-breakaway, and another chance to score.

And the goal and the assist by Tavares, even if the goal deflected off of him, meant the Big Four became the Huge Four in Game 5 and their largest and most impressive playoff win of the Brendan Shanahan era.

Nylander had three points, Tavares two, Marner and Matthews had one piece and could have had and Rielly did what he does best, jumping into the offensive play, to be in position to score.

Now the Leafs lead 3-2. Now they have the opportunity to do what hasn’t seemed possible in the past, not winning a playoff round but beating Vasilevskiy after he loses a game. He’s 16-0 after his last 16 losses.

The Leafs are in a position to make their own history and upset the history of the defending champions all at the very same time.

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Game 5 was heavyweight playoff hockey, hard-working, hard-hitting, highly skilled and full of opportunities for great save after great save. The kind of hockey Cooper said was missing from this playoff season across the NHL — the kind of game Cooper would applaud if he wasn’t the losing coach.

It’s the kind of game you can lose track of Jack Campbell, if you hadn’t seen the way the game began. Tampa scored two early goals — neither of them the kind you’d fault a goaltender for — and then Campbell did what playoff goalies are supposed to do. He made save after save to prevent the score from becoming 3-0. He gave the Leafs an opportunity to win. He came up big when it mattered most.

This is what playoff goaltending has to be for successful teams. And the Leafs are now a win away from going somewhere this group has never been before and this franchise hasn’t been in so very long.