TAMPA — After the Lightning lost Game 2 of their first-round playoff series in Toronto, captain Steven Stamkos sat at his stall and said that this series will be about managing emotions and avoiding the roller coaster that the intensity of the playoffs can create.
But with one hit in the third period of Saturday’s Game 3 at Amalie Arena, the Leafs brought out the ire in the Lightning.
Clinging to a one-goal lead, Lightning center Brayden Point was slammed into the boards by Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly at the 5:04 mark. Point, in obvious pain, stumbled out of the corner trying to get to the Lightning bench but fell to the ice holding his chest.
By that time, Nikita Kucherov went after Rielly, and Stamkos dropped his gloves with Auston Matthews in a rare display of fisticuffs between 60-goal scorers as Kucherov changed fighting partners, exchanging swings with Ryan O’Reilly.
Point somehow returned to the game, but the Lightning still had to control their emotions. O’Reilly’s goal with an extra attacker with one minute remaining in regulation sent the game to sudden-death overtime.
With 44.7 seconds remaining in overtime, Rielly found the back of the net to lift the Leafs to a 4-3 win. Toronto takes a 2-1 series lead Monday night’s game at Amalie Arena.
The Leafs celebrated, stealing a game in Tampa after the Lightning had dominated the attack and zone play for most of the final 60 minutes. In overtime, the Lightning had 24 shot attempts to the Leafs’ nine.
Game 3 was much different than the first two games of the series, when the winner ran out to big first-period leads and rolled from there.
Up until that final minute of regulation, it appeared that Lightning rookie defenseman Darren Raddysh’s first postseason goal would hold as the game winner.
With all of the Lightning stars on the ice in a tied game, Raddysh circled around the back of the net and was left open along the left circle, where he roofed a shot past Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov with 6:26 remaining in the second period.
The Lightning outshot Toronto 15-7 in the period and manufactured 20 scoring chances.
The Lightning might not have needed overtime had Point been given a goal on a puck that leaked past Samsonov with 4:19 left in the second. After a video review, officials ruled that Samsonov had covered the puck, which launched Lightning coach Jon Cooper into a tirade on the Tampa Bay bench.
