4
0
There is no justice.
TOR-4
TB-3 (OT)
Toronto Leads the Series 2-1
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed four goals on 28 shots for the loss. Not the rebound game that was needed.
First Period
3:24 TOR Acciari (1), (Knies, O’Reilly)
4:50 TB Cirelli (2), (Killorn, Hagel)
11:10 TOR Matthews (1), (Marner, Jarnkrok)
19:28 TB Hagel (1), (Perry, Colton)
Second Period
13:34 TB Raddysh (1), (Kucherov, Stamkos)
Third Period
19:00 TOR O’Reilly (2), (Nylander, Marner)
Overtime
19:15 TOR Rielly (1), (O’Reilly)
Brandon Hagel and Darren Raddysh were the second and third stars.
This was frustrating, because Toronto didn’t deserve this game. From about the 15 minute mark of the First Period on the Tampa Bay Lightning wildly outpossessed and outplayed the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just lived in the Leafs’ zone and truly did generate the goals they needed to win this game only to have a goal by Brayden Point wiped off by a far too quick whistle. The Lightning should’ve had this game in regulation. They got screwed. Plain and simple. Moneypuck.com had the Deserve to Win meter at 62.6% for the Lightning and expected goals were 4.21 to 3.35 Tampa, and frankly it didn’t feel that close. The big thing now is for Tampa Bay not to hang their heads because they need to get Game Four and turn this into a three game series. They’ve carried the balance of play in this series and, surprisingly, look the deeper team to me. This is still very do-able if they stay the course (and if they tighten up small mistakes and get some better goaltending).
Side note: I’m absolutely disgusted by the media and the Leafs fans continually wishcasting about the extent of Lightning players’ injuries. Tonight Brayden Point got the wind knocked out of him in a pretty nasty collision in the corner and folks were damned near gleeful about it. This follows on the bush league response to Hedman, Cernak, and Eyssimont all getting injured in Game One. You people have no damned class. Grow up.
Darren Raddysh had his first NHL playoff goal and was +1 with 2 penalty minutes, 5 shots, 4 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 31:50. And he had a gaping net in OT that he missed. Could’ve been the hero.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
