The Maple Leafs continue to take the Tampa Bay Lightning by storm.
For the third time in three meetings in 2024-25 between the Atlantic Division foes, Toronto prevailed, beating Tampa Bay 5-3 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday night.
The Leafs will go for the season sweep against the Lightning on April 9 in Tampa.
Matthew Knies scored two goals for the Leafs, including a power-play goal midway through the third period after Lightning defenceman Darren Raddysh trimmed the Toronto lead to 3-2.
Nick Paul, with his second goal of the night, scored Tampa’s third goal on a power play with eight minutes remaining.
Mitch Marner scored into an empty Lightning net with 55 seconds to play.
Captain Auston Matthews, who tried to score on the Michigan move in the third but was stopped by Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson, and William Nylander also scored for Toronto.
The new Leafs defence pair of Morgan Rielly and Jake McCabe was on the ice for the first Lightning goal.
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Leafs forward Pontus Holmberg departed the game in the third period after he was tripped into the end boards by Tampa’s Emil Lilleberg.
In making his 24th start of the season to set a personal high, Joseph Woll again was sharp in the Leafs net, making 28 saves as Toronto won its third game in a row.
Stops on Victor Hedman, Zemgus Girgensons and Nikita Kucherov in the second period stood out, but really, Woll was solid from start to finish.
After getting outplayed in the first period, the Lightning was better in the second and got on the scoreboard when Paul deflected a Raddysh shot past Woll at 16:07.
That cut the Leafs lead to 2-1, but it wasn’t long before Toronto restored a two-goal lead.
With 23 seconds remaining in the second, Knies scored for the first time in six games when he went to the net and fooled Johansson after Mitch Marner set him up.
Nylander scored the Leafs’ second goal on, you guessed it, a breakaway. Rielly and Steven Lorentz conspired to create a Lightning turnover, and Nylander swept into the clear and fired a shot past Johansson at 13:45.
Matthews continued his hot pace since returning from an upper-body injury when he scored in the first period. It was Matthews’ eighth goal in nine games, and came when he took a pass from Knies, used his speed to find open ice and beat Johansson between the legs at 4:06 of the first period.
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