Lightning Make Championship Experience Count and Spoil Maple Leafs Party

TORONTO – It wasn't supposed to go this way for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but then again, it never seems to go the way it's intended to.

The Leafs entered Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 3-1 series lead and the opportunity to advance past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2004.

It was a home game, too, with a raucous and excited-to-celebrate crowd on hand. The plaza full of fans outside of Scotiabank Arena was ready to explode in joy.

The only thing standing in the way of a city-wide party was a Lightning team that's been to the Stanley Cup Final three straight years. That fact alone was reason for caution, and sure enough the Lightning took Game 5 4-2 to force a Game 6 in Tampa on Saturday.

As ominous as those facts read, hindsight and history made it seem like it was a foregone conclusion that the Lightning would come away with the win. But after the Maple Leafs had two straight come-from-behind wins in Games 3 and 4 in Tampa, it was starting to feel a bit like destiny.

But championship teams don't go away that easily.

"We still have so far to go, but to come into this environment—and it was a phenomenal environment—and then play the way we did, it's just as I said a couple of days ago, we're going back to the rink and that's exciting for us," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.

The jovial atmosphere exploded briefly in the first period when Morgan Rielly gave Toronto a 1-0 lead 5:46 into the first period. The arena was deafening with cheers from the Leafs faithful, but before they were able to announce Rielly's goal, Anthony Cirelli tied it up 26 seconds later.

A road-team goal is always going to suck the air out of the arena. Cirelli's goal at that moment, however, changed the pace of the game. The Leafs were staggered, and the Lightning used that tying goal to turn the game on the home team, maintaining possession in their zone and generating shots. It was the perfect road game performance. What also helps is having a battle-tested, award-winning goaltender show you what he's capable of doing.

Even though Rielly's wicked shot in the first period eluded Andrei Vasilevskiy, he shut things down from that point on until deep into the third period. Vasilevskiy made 28 saves, only letting a late goal to Auston Matthews through after the Leafs pulled Ilya Samsonov for the extra attacker.

Vasilevskiy came up with pucks, read shots like a book he's read 100 times before, and anticipated plays well. He's won a Vezina, a pair of Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe. Taking a win-or-see-you-next-season Game 5 on the road in that kind of atmosphere is just second nature at this point.

"Big-time saves, he just makes them," Lightning forward Nick Paul said. "He's not scared about it, he's not shy. If he needs to do a slick little windmill glove save, he'll do it. He's unbelievable. He's the best goalie in the league and he showed that tonight."

No situation made Paul's opinion correct like Vasilevskiy's blocker save against Mitch Marner on a third-period breakaway with the Lightning holding onto a 2-1 lead. He stood tall and knocked the shot away with the kind of confidence you'd expect from an accomplished netminder, even after he's had his skills questioned during this series.

As fated as the outcome may have seemed, it's not as if it came easily. The Lightning have dealt with injuries to defensemen Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak. Forward Tanner Jeannot missed Game 5 and was replaced by Michael Eyssimont. All he did was jump into the action and put up a goal and an assist. When a player goes down, it's down to the next man up to take care of business. Eyssimont did more than just seize the day, he skated away with it.

"It was an extremely big moment, and you can't ask for more than that," Cooper said of the 26-year-old Eyssimont's performance. "In the end, he gave us what we needed, and when you play in these playoff series, you don't go through a playoff series just by the same 20 guys. You need to have depth in an organization, that everybody has to play a part in and everybody that's played games for us in these first five games, they played a big part."

Had the Lightning not blown third-period leads in the past two games, they'd be preparing for the second round and a date with either Boston or Florida. That's not to say the Maple Leafs didn't have a big hand in that. They're a very good team, too, and more than capable of finishing this series off in Game 6.

But it's an elimination game Toronto came up short in yet again, and even now with a 3-2 lead in the series, old memories never go away. It's up to the players to show they're not haunted.

Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images

Vanquishing a championship-caliber team is never an easy task, even less so when they're defending their conference crown. If nothing else, Game 5 reminded everyone of who they can be again and that one win doesn't change everything.

"We've had this experience, our most recent playoff series, very similar circumstances," Cooper said. "We went into Colorado in an unbelievable environment with the Stanley Cup on the line, not just the first round, and we found a way to win, but we didn't try to win the next one.

"You have to learn from those moments and how to not look at Game 7. Game 7 is irrelevant, Game 6 is all that matters and it's about just winning one game, and shame on us if we think we're going to go home and that's going to be the difference for us. It's urgency and effort. That'll be the difference. We need to bring that to Game 6."