The Tampa Bay Lightning cannot seem to lose following a loss in the playoffs as they have now won sixteen playoff games in a row following a loss. It was a dominant game from start to finish for head coach Jon Cooper and his squad. Toronto had no answer for the unrelenting Tampa Bay attack that took the game away from them in a blink of an eye.
Just one minute into the first period, the Bolts got on the board off of a sizzling one timer from Steven Stamkos. He received an incredible pass to the top of the zone from Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman also was credited with an assist. It was an explosive play early on that set the tone for the rest of the way.
The Lightning would go on to score four more unanswered goals from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Pat Maroon, Ross Colton, and Corey Perry. By the end of the second period, the score was 5-0 in favor of the Bolts. Hedman and Kucherov each had two assists in this span. It is a great sight to see that even when the two big name players are not scoring, they are giving the rest of the team opportunities to score and creating winning chemistry. And improved chemistry is what is going to get Tampa Bay to win this tight series.
Despite Toronto scoring three goals in the third period, Tampa Bay ended up scoring a couple more off of empty netters by Ondrej Palat and Ross Colton to make the final score 7-3 and tie the series at 2-2.
The Lightning also took advantage of Toronto getting into lots of penalty trouble throughout the game. They had ten penalties on the night and five alone in the second period, which is when the Bolts’ explosive offense came alive. Goaltender Jack Campbell also made some brutal mistakes including letting Colton’s second period goal go right through his glove. He also made a careless pass to one his defensemen that was picked off by Bellemare in the slot to make it 2-0 in the first.
All of this combined with catching the Maple Leafs off guard in general to start the game has made game 5 in Toronto mean that much more.