HUGE 2-1 LEAD – TRANNA

To some, the biggest news pre-game for tonight’s Toronto/Tampa game 3 conflict was the return of Lightning stud D-man Victor Hedman.  His size, strength, experience and physical presence was all the Tampa team would need to turn this around, many would tell you.

The Toronto Maple Leafs came out with hitting with speed of their own that lead to Noel Accari’s first goal of the playoffs at the 3:24 mark.  That gave Mathew Knies his first playoff point as a Leaf.   Not 1:36 later Anthony Cerelli scored his first to tie things up from Kilhorn and Hagel.  Ilya Samsonov continued his fine play throughout wild pressure from the Stamkos line to keep the Leafs in it.  A great shift led the Leafs to Austin Mathews first goal of the series on a tip-in from Marner.  Luke Schenn had a big influence on that goal.  Tampa Bay slammed a scramble goal under Sami to tie it at twos with just :30 seconds left.

Ilya Samsonov had to come out with a couple 10-bellers to start the second as TB meant business.  The Lightning continued to turn up their assertiveness throughout the mid-section of the second that finally turned into a Darren Raddysh goal allowing the home team to take the lead.  A dumb Sam Lafferty cross checking penalty could have added to the misery, but the Leafs stood tall.

A rather bizarre display of the hate that is building in this series came to a head when Point and Reilly went in to the Leaf’s corner and Point went down (rib?).  This of course drew a crowd.  Comically, Stamkos and Mathews ended up chucking them (tie).  Morgan was first charged with a 5 minute major, which was later pulled back to a 2 minute minor.  Sami continued his stellar play to keep his team close.  When Keefe pulled him in the last minute, Ryan O’Rielly came through huge with a jammer to sent this one to overtime.

My First Star of the game is Ilya Samsonov.  Huge saves in the third period and OT made the difference.  The comeback to status of Morgan Reilly is equal.  His short sider to win the game was awesome.  All is cool in Leafs Land, for now.

HOPPER NOTES:  I get the distinct feeling that we have not seen the best of Jake McCabe, from a scoring or punch up point if view…I know I said this last year, but I am really annoyed that the Tampa franchise was allowed to “steal” our colours…was Victor Hedman always that “red-faced” or does he just have high blood pressure…maybe that Mathews/Stamkos dust up will lead to something else…is there a more Leafs Nation hated opponent than Correy Pecker (other than Marchant and Probert?) …I ABSOLUTEY hate those mobile board ads ! …Knies with Marner and Mathews late in the third – who knew ?

CHEERS ALL !