Leafs beat Lightning, advance to 2nd round for 1st time since 2004
At long last, the Toronto Maple Leafs won a playoff round.
The Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in overtime in Game 6 on Saturday night to advance to the second round for the first time since 2004.
Captain John Tavares buried the game-winner at Amalie Arena, ending an abysmal streak of six straight opening-series exits for Toronto since 2017.
Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews broke the stalemate late in the second period with a one-time blast that went up top past Andrei Vasilevskiy, but Lightning captain Steven Stamkos had the answer for the Bolts in the final 20 minutes to force the extra frame.
"You get thrown so much in these series and there's so many ups and downs and it's just a roller coaster," Matthews said postgame, per Sportsnet. "Just trying to stay even keel and just enjoy the moment, stay present. I'm just so proud of every guy in this locker room, just battling our way.
"This is a small step in where we're trying to go, but obviously this is a big one for us."
The Maple Leafs have made the playoffs every season since Matthews' rookie year in 2016-17. He suited up for every game in the series losses to the Washington Capitals (2017), Boston Bruins (2018-19), Columbus Blue Jackets (2020 qualifying round), Montreal Canadiens (2021), and Lightning (2022).
Like Matthews, Mitch Marner is also focused on what's to come.
"It was a little bit of a relief for sure, just to be able to get that done," he said, according to Sports Illustrated's David Alter. "But (we) got to make sure we are ready because it just gets harder and harder."
Marner paced the Maple Leafs with 11 points in the series, while Matthews led the way with five goals.
Toronto netminder Ilya Samsonov enjoyed his best performance of the matchup to close things out, stopping 31 of 32 shots in the victory. On the other end of the ice, Vasilevskiy made 20 saves.
"I feel tired right now," Samsonov told reporters after the game.
Matthews praised Samsonov's attitude after the pivotal win that ended 19 years of futility.
"Sammy comes to the rink every day and works his ass off," he said, per the Toronto Sun's Lance Hornby. "He doesn't care if he has a bad game or lets in a bad goal."
The victory marked Toronto's third overtime win on the road in the series. Morgan Rielly came up with the winner in Game 3, while Alex Kerfoot played the hero in Game 4.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe tossed his lineup into a blender and ran with 11 forwards and seven defensemen for Game 6. Winger Michael Bunting and blue-liners Timothy Liljegren and Erik Gustafsson came in for Sam Lafferty, Zach Aston-Reese, and Justin Holl.
"A long time coming," Keefe said of the win. "For a lot of players, for myself, even longer for Leafs Nation. I'm thrilled they get to see second-round hockey. ... They've been through a lot of shit. About time a bounce went our way."
As for the Lightning, the loss ended their run of three straight appearances in the Stanley Cup Final. Though Stamkos acknowledged that the Bolts should be proud of the effort they put in, he said the end to the streak was "a tough moment."
"The run that we've been on the last three years has been amazing," he said, according to team beat reporter Chris Krenn. "Any time you don't get to that level, it feels like a failure because of the season and the group that we have in here."
Toronto will take on the Boston Bruins or Florida Panthers in Round 2. That series is currently tied 3-3 with Game 7 getting underway on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET.