TORONTO – William Nylander scored on the power play at 3:43 of overtime when the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Thursday night for their fourth straight victory.
John Tavares scored the other goal for Toronto (6-4-1), who got 24 saves from Jack Campbell. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner each had two assists.
Patrick Maroon answered for Tampa Bay (5-3-2). Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves when the Lightning had their three-game winning streak snapped.
Tavares tied the game with a set-up from Marner and Matthews with 41.1 seconds remaining in regulation time with Campbell on the bench for an additional attacker after Vasilevskiy frustrated the locals all night.
Tavares was cut on a breakaway by Lightning captain Victor Hedman in the extra period, and Nylander scored his fifth team-leading goal of the season in a single half to secure the victory.
The Leafs and Lightning last played on March 10, 2020, a 2-1 Toronto win at Scotiabank Arena over their Atlantic Division rival, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the sporting world. two days later.
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Tampa, however, played 15 games inside the Toronto bubble as part of the league’s summer restart, including a five overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 1 of the Los Angeles’ first-round playoff series. equipment.
The Lightning would win the Stanley Cup in Edmonton against the Dallas Stars before repeating in July against the Montreal Canadiens.
After the Lightning hit two posts within the first four minutes of the game, Tampa jumped to the front at 1:16 p.m. in opening period.
The Leafs tried to make a set play after the offensive zone showdown, but the visitors raced the other way with an odd run, with Corey Perry throwing a pass to Maroon for the big winger to bury his first short of the season at Campbell.
Toronto didn’t have much energy until late in the period when Hedman hooked Marner before his blue line teammate Mikhail Sergachev immediately followed with an illegal head check at the Leafs winger.
The 5v3 power play that followed for two minutes could have been a time to lift a crowd looking for something to get excited about heading into intermission, but was lost thanks to a disjointed sequence that saw Toronto not really threaten Vasilevskiy. .
Campbell made a good save at Brayden Point early in the second before Vasilevskiy denied Matthews and Wayne Simmonds on good chances down the tight.
Simmonds had another great opportunity with less than a minute to go in the period he launched into the breakaway, but the Tampa keeper denied his backhand move.
Vasilevskiy showed the leather to Toronto defender Rasmus Sandin in the seventh minute of the third before William Nylander also tried it with the glove.
Campbell kept his team on it with a great save on a point break later in the period, and Travis Dermott blocked Mathieu Joseph on the rebound before Tavares tied late.
Notes: Leafs defender Justin Holl was a healthy scratch for the third straight game. … Toronto continues its five-game home run on Saturday against the Boston Bruins. … Tampa visits Senators from Ottawa in the nation’s capital on Saturday afternoon.
This Canadian Press report was first published on November 4, 2021.
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Reference-globalnews.ca