Matthews, Maple Leafs defeat Lightning in Game 5, take series lead

TORONTO — Auston Matthews broke a third-period tie, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

The Maple Leafs took a 3-2 series lead and pushed the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions to the brink of elimination. Game 6 in the best-of-7 series is in Tampa Bay on Thursday. 

Mitchell Marner shot on a 2-on-1 leading to a rebound in the slot that Matthews put past Andrei Vasilevskiy for the lead at 13:54 of the third for the Maple Leafs, who trailed 2-0 after one period.

William Nylander had a goal and two assists, John Tavares had a goal and an assist and Jack Campbell made 31 saves for Toronto, the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division.

Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman scored, Nikita Kucherov had two assists and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves for Tampa Bay, the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic.

Stamkos put the Lightning up 1-0 at 5:19 of the first period when he shot from the slot past Campbell’s blocker.

Hedman made it 2-0 at 6:11 when he took a pass from Kucherov and shot from the high slot on the power play.

Toronto killed off a 30-second 5-on-3 power play beginning at 11:17 when Mark Giordano was assessed a minor penalty for cross checking with Nylander already in the penalty box for holding.

Tampa Bay outshot Toronto 14-4 in the first period.

Tavares cut the lead to 2-1 at 3:35 of the second period when he deflected a shot in the slot from Nylander on the power play.

Campbell stopped Nicholas Paul on a breakaway at 15:18 to keep the score 2-1.

The Maple Leafs scored twice in 1:13 in the third period to take the lead with both goals coming while the teams played 4-on-4. Morgan Rielly tied it 2-2 at 3:01 when he one-timed a pass from Tavares at the right hashmarks.

Nylander put Toronto up 3-2 at 4:14 when he took a pass from Ilya Mikheyev and shot past Vasilevskiy’s glove from the left faceoff dot.

Ryan McDonagh tied it 3-3 at 8:17 when he one-timed a pass from Ross Colton from the left hashmarks over Campbell’s blocker.