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The Toronto Maple Leafs were expecting the Tampa Bay Lightning to rebound and respond after a flat performance in opener of their first-round series, but did not bring the same effort to combat the two-time Stanley Cup Champs, losing 5-3 in Game 2 of the best-of-seven series at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
Michael Bunting, Mitch Marner, and Alex Kerfoot scored for Toronto, and Jack Campbell made 29 saves in a loss that gave Tampa home-ice advantage and evened the series at 1-1.
Like Game 1, the contest was dominated by special teams, but Toronto could not cover up for their undisciplined nature, surrendering three power-play goals, and were unable to take advantage of any of their four opportunities with the man advantage. Victor Hedman’s power-play marker with two seconds left in the first was a gut punch from which the Leafs were unable to recover.
"I thought they would play better. It's more of the team we prepared for. Obviously, the difference in the game was special teams. Five-on-five was a pretty even hockey game." Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. "I thought we took a bit of a breath on that first one there, it was like we thought we were through it and they turned on it real quick and credit to them, they came out real fast and took advantage of us before the end of the period."
Corey Perry’s breakaway goal made it 2-0 early in the middle frame before Toronto got on the scoreboard with Michael Bunting’s first of the postseason, but Nikita Kucherov’s power-play goal just over two minutes later proved to be a momentum killer.
“I think in the second half of the game, especially after we made it 2-1, I don’t think we grabbed the game as well as they did. Obviously being shorthanded as much as we were, especially when we got down, it was hard to really get our game going and find our way back into it.” Leafs captain John Tavares said. “So a couple opportunities off the rush for them that they capitalized on, and obviously with that many power plays and the players they have on their power play that puts a lot of stress on Soup and our penalty kill so we have to be more disciplined.”
The Leafs must now figure out how to respond with the series shifting to Tampa Bay for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday. Keefe did not tip his hand of any potential lineup changes at practice on Thursday before the club departed for Florida, but with Wayne Simmonds taking two minors that led to power-play goals and Kyle Clifford suspended for a hit on Ross Colton, the club may turn to veteran forward Jason Spezza as an option on the fourth line.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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