TORONTO, ON — Toronto Maple Leafs' star center Auston Matthews had a stellar game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the home team shut out the visitors 5-0 on Monday.
Toronto scored in each period and the Bolts struggled to keep up all game.
Tampa Bay will hope to bring a different energy into Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday in Toronto to level the series one all.
Should the Lightning manage to get past the Maple Leafs, then the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions will face the winner of the matchup between the Florida Panthers and the Washington Capitals in the second round.
Winning a third straight Stanley Cup would make the Lightning only the fourth team to reach that accomplishment along with the Toronto Maple Leafs (1947-49), the Montreal Canadiens (1956-60, 1976-79) and the New York Islands (1982-1982).
The puck drop for the next game of the series will be at 7:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario.
Blog:
3rd Period
Tampa Bay Lightning 0 | Toronto Maple Leafs 5
Auston Matthews scores his second goal of the evening. Morgan Rielly and Ondrej Kase with the assist.
11:09 left in the third and final period.
The Maple Leafs attempted 27 shots while the Bolts have 18 attempted shots with less than 10 minutes to go.
With just under nine minutes left an all-out brawl erupted on the ice. The teams were eventually separated and the game continued until the clock reached 00:00.
2nd Period
Tampa Bay Lightning 0 | Toronto Maple Leafs 4
The Tampa Bay Lightning brought a refreshed energy in the second period. However, the Bolts have yet to get any points on the board.
Auston Matthews scored the Maple Leafs second goal on a power play. Mitchell Marner and John Tavares assisted.
Three minutes after Matthews' scores, David Kampf scored a shorthanded goal.
Mitchell Marner scores a fourth goal for the Maple Leafs with just over two minutes left in the second period.
1st period
Tampa Bay Lightning 0 | Toronto Maple Leafs 1
The first period was a back and forth battle on the ice between the Lightning and Maple Leafs. With less than two minutes left, the Toronto Maple Leafs got a point on the board to close out the first period.
Jake Muzzin scored for Toronto at 18:19. Ilya Mikheyev and Ondrej Kase assisted.
Notable: Toronto's Kyle Clifford was tossed from Game 1 after he received a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for a hit on Lightning's Ross Colton.