Campbell, Maple Leafs hold off Lightning in Game 3 of Eastern First Round
Jack Campbell #JackCampbell
TAMPA — Jack Campbell made 32 saves for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 5-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Amalie Arena on Friday.
Toronto leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 is in Tampa on Sunday.
Colin Blackwell scored his first career NHL playoff goal, and Morgan Rielly and David Kampf each had a goal for the Maple Leafs, the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division.
Ondrej Palat had a goal and an assist, Ross Colton scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves for the Lightning, the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic.
Reilly gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 4:54 of the first period on the power play, scoring on a loose puck after Mitchell Marner’s shot attempt went off the stick of Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.
Blackwell extended the lead to 2-0 at 9:44 when he finished a 3-on-1 rush.
Kampf made it 3-0 at 5:52 of the second period after he intercepted a pass by Brandon Hagel near center ice and scored from the high slot through Tampa Bay defenseman Zach Bogosian.
Colton scored on the power play to make it 3-1 at 11:03 with a one-timer off a pass from Sergachev.
Palat cut it to 3-2 at 5:43 of the third period with a shot from the left circle that went through the legs of Toronto forward Ondrej Kase and over the blocker of Campbell.
Ilya Mikheyev had an empty-net goal at 18:20 to make it 4-2 and added a second one with five seconds remaining for the 5-2 final.