The Maple Leafs made the best of a late fumble by theTampa Bay Lightning, moving to the brink of their first playoff series win in nearly two decades Monday night with a 5-4 overtime win in Game 4 of the best-of-seven matchup on Monday night at Amalie Arena.
Going into the third period with a 4-1 lead, it was somewhat unbelievable to imagine the Bolts ending the game with anything other than an even series at two games apiece.
However, that is where the odds came alive as within six minutes and 20 seconds, the game got flipped on its head with three consecutive goals by the Maple Leafs, followed by the overtime winner just 4:14 into the extra frame.
“We sat back a little bit too much,” said Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli. “Credit to them. That’s a really good team over there.”
“They pushed and they were putting pucks on net. I think we were sitting back a little bit too much and kind of got away from our game with what we were doing in the first two periods.”
Toronto hasn’t won a playoff series since 2004 and has been eliminated from the first round each of the past six postseasons, including a year ago when Tampa Bay rallied from 2-1 and 3-2 deficits to advance in seven games.
“The fourth one is the hardest to get,” Matthews said after Alexander Kerfoot scored on the power play at 4:14 of overtime to give the Maple Leafs a 3-1 series lead.
“It’s feel different,” coach Sheldon Keefe said, though he also noted it’s important for the team not to get ahead of itself.
“We’ve got a tough task,” he added, looking ahead to Game 5 in Toronto on Thursday night.
The Lightning have won 11 of 12 playoff series over the past three postseasons, moving to the Stanley Cup Final three straight years and winning the championship twice.
Alex Killorn scored twice in helping the Lightning build a 4-1 lead that the Maple Leafs surpassed with three goals — two by Matthews — in a span of 6 minutes, 20 seconds. Morgan Rielly’s second goal of the series tied it 4-all at 16:04 of the third period.
It was the second time in three nights that Toronto rallied late to force overtime. Ryan O’Reilly’s goal with 60 seconds left in regulation kept the Maple Leafs alive in Game 3, and O’Reilly won it at 19:45 of OT for a 2-1 series lead.
Mikhail Sergachev and Steven Stamkos also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots and had a couple of big saves in the overtime period before Kerfoot redirected Mark Giordano past the goaltender for the win.
