TAMPA, Fla. — A sequence of fights between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs needy out within the 3rd duration of Saturday evening’s Sport 3. And the penalty sheet, nearest series was once restored, resembled an NHL All-Big name roster.
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos and Toronto superstar Auston Matthews, two gamers with more than one NHL awards and honors and a 60-goal season on every in their resumes, fought all through the series, which not on time a essential sport that Tampa Bay was once important, 3-2, on the moment.
The Maple Leafs tie it on the finish of law, and received, 4-3, in additional time to tug a 2-1 manage within the Japanese Convention First Spherical sequence.
The birthday celebration got here lengthy nearest a singular series of brawls healthier for a regular-season sport. Play games was once interrupted for a number of mins time officers looked after thru a wild series that started with Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly pushing Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point into the forums as the 2 battled for a reduce puck.
The strike touched off a number of skirmishes, one in every of them involving Stamkos and Matthews. The 2 had been despatched to the penalty field for combating, however they weren’t the one stars who had been flagged for his or her movements. Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, himself a more than one NHL All-Big name in addition to a Hart Trophy winner as league MVP, and Ryan O’Reilly, a 2019 Stanley Cup champion with the St. Louis Blues, had been additionally penalized.
“The fight, itself, that’s a classic example of a veteran championship team like Tampa Bay manipulating the officials and taking advantage of a situation, right,” Toronto mentor Sheldon Keefe requested in his postgame information convention.
Rielly was once to begin with assessed a five-minute penalty for boarding, however following a overview, the officers dominated there was once deny penalty for the shove on Level, who skated to the store room crooked over in ache prior to returning within the endmost mins of law.
Then in his availability, Keefe gave his tug at the Stamkos-Matthews finish of the series, and was once vocal in his displeasure on the outcome.
“The officials literally holding Steven Stamkos with one arm and his other hand — with no glove on — is punching Auston Matthews,” he stated. “Not the linesman, the referee — who calls the penalty — was holding Stamkos while this was happening.”
Stamkos was once much less vocal all through his availability, ultimately chalking the series as much as “playoff hockey.”
I’m sick a target and outplayed for far of the evening, the rough-and-tumble Maple Leafs battled again, even though, discovering a approach to reclaim home-ice merit. O’Reilly scored with a tiny left in law, upcoming received a faceoff that arrange Rielly’s target at 19:15 of additional time that gave the Maple Leafs the win.
Toronto, which hasn’t received a playoff sequence since 2004, is 0 for 7 in its endmost seven postseason matchups, together with first-round exits every of the week six years.
“It wasn’t the best game by us, but we did a good job of sticking with it,” O’Reilly stated.
Keefe additionally appreciated the best way his group stayed the path, noting that during week years “we’ve lost this game.”
Terminating season, in Spherical 1, the Maple Leafs misplaced to the Lightning in seven video games.
“Give Toronto credit. They stuck with it. They get one at the end and one goes in for them in overtime. But I liked a lot of what we brought,” Tampa Bay mentor Jon Cooper stated, after including that “we’re still in this series.”
The Related Press contributed to this record.
