The Toronto Maple Leafs built a four-goal cushion and held on for a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Saturday. Joseph Woll made 38 saves and Chris Tanev recorded two points to help Toronto fend off a third-period push by the home team.
Matthew Knies opened the scoring for Toronto 7:13 into the first period with a tip-in goal set up by Tanev and Auston Matthews. The Maple Leafs extended their advantage with three unanswered goals in the second period. Tanev scored his first goal of the season on a wrist shot at 8:06, and Nick Robertson followed just 33 seconds later with his second goal of the campaign. John Tavares added a backhand goal at 18:59 to give the Maple Leafs a 4-0 lead heading into the second intermission.
Tampa Bay mounted a late comeback bid during the final ten minutes of the third period. Michael Eyssimont scored on a slap shot at 11:21, and Jake Guentzel followed with a wrist shot at 15:19 to cut the deficit to two. Cam Atkinson then scored on a tip-in on the power play at 17:38 to pull the Lightning within one goal. William Nylander ended the rally by scoring an empty-net goal with 1:16 remaining in regulation.
Woll earned the win after stopping 38 of 41 shots faced as Tampa Bay outshot Toronto 41-29. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves on 28 shots in the loss. The Lightning converted one of their three power-play chances, while the Maple Leafs went 0 for 1 on their lone opportunity with the man advantage.
The win improved Toronto to 14-7-2 on the season, giving the Maple Leafs two wins against Tampa Bay after previously defeating them 5-2 on October 21. The Lightning fell to 12-9-2 with the loss.
