Alexander Kerfoot emerged as the overtime hero as the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from a three-goal deficit to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.
Auston Matthews scored twice in the third period, Noel Acciari added a single tally, while Game 3 hero Morgan Rielly forced overtime with his game-tying marker.
Alex Killorn scored twice, Steven Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev added one each as the Lightning blew a 4-1 lead.
Killorn, who didn’t register a goal throughout the 2022 playoffs, was the Lightning’s best player in Game 4.. Nikita Kucherov found a wide-open Killorn on the power play to open the scoring and the Lightning never looked back.
Kucherov excelled as a playmaker and set up Sergachev for the insurance goal, as Tampa Bay’s ascending star had an open lane and buried the puck into a wide-open cage past Ilya Samsonov.
Acciari got on the board for the Maple Leafs, deflecting a point shot from Justin Holl, but Toronto’s offense largely sputtered through the first two periods. Tampa Bay locked down the neutral zone for the majority of the contest, while Killorn, flanking a line with Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel, kept Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Calle Jarnkrok in check.
Toronto changed its lines during the second period, uniting 20-year-old rookie Matthew Knies — one of the lone bright spots for the Maple Leafs — with Marner and John Tavares, while Matthews centered a line flanked by William Nylander and Calle Jarnkrok. And the in-game changes worked to great effect. Matthews, on a line with Marner and Nylander, scored his first goal of the contest, then deflected a Mark Giordano shot on the power play to cut Tampa’s lead to 4-3.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe reunited Tavares with Marner and Ryan O’Reilly during a critical offensive zone faceoff. Toronto corralled the puck, it squirted out to Rielly who wired home a seeing-eye wrist shot for the game-tying marker.
The series resumes Thursday, where the Maple Leafs will host the Lightning in Game 5.
More to come.