Maple Leafs’ Morgan Rielly sparks line brawl with hit, scores in overtime against Lightning
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly briefly injured the Lightning’s top goal scorer with a third-period check.
Then he hurt Tampa Bay in a different way by scoring at 19:15 of overtime. His seeing-eye goal gave the Maple Leafs a 4-3 victory on Saturday night and a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series.
Rielly had sparked a line brawl in the third period when he shoved Lightning 51-goal scorer Brayden Point into the boards at the 5:04 mark. Point hit his shoulder and was in pain as he skated off the ice. He would return later in the third period.
Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov fought Toronto’s Ryan O’Reilly and the Lightning’s Steven Stamkos and Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews also fought. Tampa Bay’s Darren Raddysh was called for roughing Toronto’s Mitch Marner.
Rielly was originally called for a five-minute boarding major, but on review, the league determined that there was no penalty for the shove. That left Rielly in the game and able to return once he served two minutes for roughing Kucherov.
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“It was a no-call,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We have to live with it.”
losing 7-3 in the opener to the Lightning, who have been to the Stanley Cup Final the past three seasons.