The game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning will take place at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday, April 20 at 7:00 PM ET.
Follow Us
The Toronto Maple Leafs will welcome the Tampa Bay Lightning to Scotiabank Arena for an NHL game on Thursday. The Toronto Maple Leafs lost 3-7 in their last game over the Lightning. Ryan O’Reilly, William Nylander and Calle Jarnkrok scored for Toronto. Mitch Marner had three assists and Auston Matthews added a pair.
“It’s a hard one to explain, no doubt,” said Toronto captain John Tavares, who has gone 0-5 in playoff series since signing in 2018. “We’re disappointed.” Ilya Samsonov allowed six goals on 29 shots before being replaced by Joseph Woll at the start the third period. The rookie netminder finished with four stops. “This is just one game for us,” Samsonsov said. “We didn’t think this will be easy series for us.”
Toronto winger Michael Bunting was whistled for a match penalty and game misconduct for an illegal check to the head of Tampa Bay’s Erik Cernak. The hit occurred with 4:20 remaining in the second period. Cernak, who did not have the puck, fell backward to the ice and went to the locker room. “We were on our heels a bit early on,” said Sheldon Keefe, in his fourth post-season as Maple Leafs head coach. Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Thursday night in Toronto.
The Tampa Bay Lightning on the other hand won 3-7 against the Maple Leafs in their last game. The Tampa Bay Lightning forgot all about their difficult March and opened their postseason with a rout. Brayden Point scored twice and the Lightning soundly beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-3 on Tuesday night in the opening game of the teams’ first-round playoff series. The Lightning beat the Maple Leafs in seven games at the same stage of the playoffs last spring on the way to their third consecutive Stanley Cup appearance. Meanwhile, Toronto is desperately looking to end an ugly string of postseason failures that has seen the franchise fail to advance since 2004.
Nikita Kucherov and Corey Perry each had a goal and two assists, and Anthony Cirelli and Ross Colton finished with a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored for the Lightning, who scored four goals on the power play. “We had a tough March, tough end to the season, but it’s about playoffs,” Perry said. “That’s what we were thinking. We were trying to get our game into shape.” Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves in his 100th playoff start. “We have a plan, we stuck to it,” Perry said. “It’s something that works. Everybody’s buying in.”
The battle-tested Lightning, meanwhile, won the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021, before falling to the Colorado Avalanche in last year’s championship round. Tampa opened the scoring just 1:18 into the first period, quieting the raucous, towel-waving crowd when Bellemare scored on a rebound after Zach Aston-Reese couldn’t clear the puck. The Lightning made it 2-0 six minutes later when Cirelli buried a rebound on a scramble after Toronto gave the puck away in the neutral zone.
Mitch Marner – Auston Matthews – Calle Järnkrok
William Nylander – Ryan O’Reilly – John Tavares
Noel Acciari – Zach Aston-Reese – T. J. Brodie
Michael Bunting – Mark Giordano
Justin Holl – David Kämpf
Alexander Kerfoot – Sam Lafferty
Jake McCabe – Morgan Rielly
Ilya Samsonov
Luke Schenn
Joseph Woll
Nikita Kucherov – Corey Perry – Anthony Cirelli
Ross Colton – Brayden Point – Pierre-Édouard Bellemare
Ian Cole – Brandon Hagel – Alex Killorn
Nick Perbix – Mikhail Sergachev
Erik Černák – Mikey Eyssimont
Victor Hedman – Patrick Maroon
Nick Paul – Darren Raddysh
Steven Stamkos
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Toronto Maple Leafs: Victor Mete, Bobby McMann, Erik Gustafsson, Matt Murray, Nicholas Robertson, Jake Muzzin
Tampa Bay Lightning: Victor Hedman, Erik Cernak, Mikey Eyssimont, Tanner Jeannot
The game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning will take place at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday, April 20 at 7:00 PM ET.
The match between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning will be telecast live on Fox Sports Sun, Bally Sports Sun, ESPN.
| Country | Channel | Date and Time |
| United States | Fox Sports Sun, Bally Sports Sun, ESPN. | April 20 (7:00 PM ET) |
Get the latest from Sportslumo.com by following us on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
