The game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning will take place at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday, April 27 at 7:00 PM ET.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs will welcome the Tampa Bay Lightning to Scotiabank Arena for an NHL game on Thursday. The Toronto Maple Leafs won 4-5 in their last game over the Lightning. Auston Matthews knows as well as anyone that Toronto’s job is not finished.
The Maple Leafs took advantage of another late collapse by the Tampa Bay Lightning, moving to the brink of their first playoff series win in nearly two decades Monday night with a 5-4 overtime win in Game 4 of the best-of-seven matchup. Toronto hasn’t won a playoff series since 2004 and has been ousted from the first round each of the past six postseasons, including a year ago when Tampa Bay rallied from 2-1 and 3-2 deficits to advance in seven games.
“The fourth one is the hardest to get,” Matthews said after Alexander Kerfoot scored on the power play at 4:14 of overtime to give the Maple Leafs a 3-1 series lead. “It’s feel different,” coach Sheldon Keefe said, though he also noted it’s important for the team not to get ahead of itself. “We’ve got a tough task,” the coach added, looking ahead to Game 5 in Toronto on Thursday night.
The Tampa Bay Lightning on the other hand lost 4-5 against the Maple Leafs in their last game. The Lightning have won 11 of 12 playoff series over the past three postseasons, advancing to the Stanley Cup Final three straight years and winning the championship twice. “We know what we’re up against, what they’ve accomplished” Matthews said.
Alex Killorn scored twice in helping the Lightning build a 4-1 lead that the Maple Leafs erased with three goals — two by Matthews — in a span of 6 minutes, 20 seconds. Morgan Rielly’s second goal of the series tied it 4-all at 16:04 of the third period. It was the second time in three nights Toronto rallied late to force overtime. Ryan O’Reilly’s goal with 60 seconds left in regulation kept the Maple Leafs alive in Game 3, and O’Reilly won it at 19:45 of OT for a 2-1 series lead.
“We scored enough goals to win. You’ve got to keep them out of your net,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. Mikhail Sergachev and Steven Stamkos also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 32 shots and had a couple of big saves in the overtime period before Kerfoot redirected Mark Giordano past the goaltender for the win.
William Nylander – Mark Giordano – Mitch Marner
Auston Matthews – Ryan O’Reilly – Noel Acciari
Justin Holl – Alexander Kerfoot – Morgan Rielly
Zach Aston-Reese – T. J. Brodie
Calle Järnkrok – David Kämpf
Matthew Knies – Sam Lafferty
Jake McCabe – Ilya Samsonov
Luke Schenn
John Tavares
Victor Hedman – Alex Killorn – Nikita Kucherov
Mikhail Sergachev – Brandon Hagel – Nick Perbix
Brayden Point – Steven Stamkos – Pierre-Édouard Bellemare
Zach Bogosian – Anthony Cirelli
Ian Cole – Ross Colton
Tanner Jeannot – Patrick Maroon
Nick Paul – Corey Perry 88
Darren Raddysh
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Toronto Maple Leafs: Michael Bunting, Matt Murray, Erik Gustafsson, Bobby McMann, Victor Mete, Nicholas Robertson, Jake Muzzin
Tampa Bay Lightning: Mikey Eyssimont, Erik Cernak
The game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning will take place at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday, April 27 at 7:00 PM ET.
The match between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning will be telecast live on Bally Sports Sun, Fox Sports Sun, TBS.
| Country | Channel | Date and Time |
| United States | Bally Sports Sun, Fox Sports Sun, TBS. | April 27 (7:00 PM ET) |
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