Lightning blow 4-1 lead in loss to Maple Leafs; which other NHL teams are in trouble?
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ first-round struggles seemed to be returning again Monday night.
Up 2-1 in the series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, they found themselves down 4-1 after two periods. The Lightning had put on a defensive clinic in the first period. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who wasn’t his usual stalwart self in the first three games, had stopped 18 of 19 shots. Defenseman Victor Hedman appeared to be in his pre-injury form.
But the Maple Leafs rallied to win 5-4 in overtime on an Alexander Kerfoot power-play goal and grabbed a 3-1 series lead. Toronto can knock off the Lightning at home on Thursday when Michael Bunting is eligible to return from his three-game suspension.
Kraken beat Avalanche in OT to tie series; Jared McCann leaves with injury
“Maybe there was just a little bit of mindset of we’ll just close this one out, but obviously Toronto had different ideas,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.
Follow every game: Latest NHL Scores and Schedules
The Lightning are far from out because they have overcome adversity during their three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final and the Maple Leafs haven’t escaped the first round since 2004.
overtime winner in Game 3. Trade deadline acquisition Ryan O’Reilly, who had tied Game 3, had two assists Monday and made several strong defensive plays.
The Lightning, meanwhile, have blown second-intermission leads in back-to-back games after going 28-1-2 in the regular season when leading entering the third period. And in the biggest surprise, Vasilevskiy has a 4.33 goals-against average and .856 save percentage.
lost 4-2. The Golden Knights can wrap up the series on Thursday at home.coach Gerard Gallant said of Monday’s 3-1 Devils win. “We didn’t play hard enough. We didn’t compete hard enough. All we did was yell at the linesman for getting thrown out of the faceoffs. A lot of bad things.”
Florida Panthers (1-3)
The Boston Bruins can wrap up the series at home on Wednesday. That’s not unexpected after their record-setting season of 65 wins and 135 points. The Panthers tried Sergei Bobrovsky in net in Game 4 after Alex Lyon was pulled in Game 3, but Bobrovsky gave up five goals on 30 shots. Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron is expected to return to practice Tuesday and play in Game 5 if all goes well.