Morgan Rielly scored with 45 seconds left in the first overtime to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a wild 4-3 win in Game 3 against the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Toronto leads the series 2-1 after the fight-marred and controversial contest.
Rielly connected from the left wall through traffic after a clean faceoff win by Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly forced overtime when he tied it 3-3 with one minute left in the third period.
O’Reilly and Mitch Marner finished with two assists each for the Maple Leafs. Ilya Samsonov made 36 saves.
Brandon Hagel had a goal and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves for the Lightning.
Noel Acciari finished off a passing play to put Toronto ahead 1-0 at 3:24 of the first period. Matthew Knies skated to the top of the left circle before feeding Acciari, who beat Vasilevskiy stick side from the high slot.
Anthony Cirelli tied it 1-1 at 4:50. Hagel dished a backhand to Alex Killorn and Killorn quickly sent it over to Cirelli at the inner left hashmark, converting on the Lightning’s first shot on goal.
Toronto capitalized on a lengthy shift in the offensive zone to take a 2-1 lead at 11:10, with Auston Matthews deflecting Marner’s point shot at the front of the net.
Video review confirmed Hagel scored with 32 seconds left in the period to even it 2-2.
Corey Perry sent a pass from behind the net to Hagel, who took a shot from low in the right circle. Samsonov sprawled to make the save but the puck trickled under him into the net. Officials reviewed the play to confirm the puck crossed the goal line.
Darren Raddysh scored his first career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal to give the Lightning their first lead of the game at 13:34 of the second period.
Raddysh took a pass from Nikita Kucherov at the right point and skated up the wall and behind the net before curling out to the left circle and beating Samsonov high on the short side.
The Lightning thought they took a 4-2 lead on the power play with just over four minutes remaining in the middle frame. Brayden Point poked the puck through Samsonov’s pads but it was called no goal after officials reviewed the play and determined Samsonov had it covered.
An all-out brawl broke out at 5:04 of the third period, including Matthews against Tampa’s Steven Stamkos. Four fighting penalties and three roughing penalties were handed out.
–Field Level Media
