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TAMPA – The best 26 seconds of John Tavares life as a Maple Leaf virtually worn out 18 years of Toronto hockey confusion and ache.
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Nearly.
It was that doable. That thrilling. That heartbreaking. And a lot not like Leaf defeats in current playoff years, they deserved a greater destiny than this one. They deserved to be advancing to the second spherical of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
They deserved all of that.
Tavares provided up 26 seconds of unforgettable Maple Leafs lore within the closing minute of the second interval of a clinching Recreation 6. Historic play that might have and possibly ought to have tilted the evening in favour of the unfortunate Leafs.
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This was a possibility to re-write their very own historical past. This was a possibility earned, a sport nicely performed and largely nicely thought out, a defeat coming late within the first additional time interval, a interval largely dominated by the Leafs.
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Now historical past awaits and Recreation 7 will go Saturday evening on the Scotiabank Enviornment and there was a motive for each pleasure and stress. Stress and pleasure: This was playoff hockey at its finest, aside from the way in which by which it ended.
Brayden Level scored at 18:04 of the primary additional time interval to provide the Lightning a come from behind 4-3 victory over the Maple Leafs, sending this primary spherical playoff collection to a seventh sport. This would be the Leafs fourth seventh sport in current historical past: It’s time for them to win one. It’s time for them to bury the ghost of 18 years with out an look within the second spherical of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
They had been deserving of that a lot Thursday evening.
The winners aren’t all the time deserved in playoff hockey.
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The pair of Tavares scores, which got here virtually out of nowhere within the closing minute of the second interval at a loud Amalie Enviornment, are moments of historical past for a Leafs franchise in want of writing its personal. New historical past. A brand new starting.
The objectives had been proper there with the Doug Gilmour wraparound purpose. Proper there with the Wendel Clark hat trick. Proper there with Nikolai Borschevsky scoring in additional time after which unable to clarify what simply occurred.
The objectives got here one 12 months after Tavares was helped off the ice within the first sport of final 12 months’s unexplainable playoff defeat to the Montreal Canadiens. His season over with a concussion, a knee damage and the form of breathless on-ice damage that’s troublesome to absorb.
And now the Leafs and Lightning transfer again to Scotiabank Enviornment for Recreation 7 on Saturday. Winner take all. No time but to exhale.
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It was that form of hockey evening. An evening worthy of remembering every little thing however the closing rating.
This was a particular evening in so some ways for the Leafs and a particular evening for a participant and a group trying to change the current historical past. This collection isn’t towards an strange Montreal group. It isn’t towards an strange Columbus group. These are the two-time Stanley Cup champions from Tampa. The Lightning won’t go down with no combat.
The Leafs might have gained the sport in regulation time had it not been some unlucky calls within the third interval. David Kampf was penalized for prime sticking at 8:02 of the interval and simply 16 seconds later so was Alex Kerfoot. Kerfoot, who had a tricky evening general, chased down a puck whereas killing a penalty and whereas jostling with Tampa star defenceman Victor Hedman, Kerfoot inadvertently high-sticked Hedman.
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The Leafs had been pressured to play two males quick towards Nikita Kucherov, Hedman, Steven Stamkos, all of whom shall be going to the Corridor of Fame at some point. Toronto made a valiant try to kill the two-man drawback however Kucherov scored at 9:20 of the interval – the purpose that despatched Recreation 6 to additional time.
The Leafs had been dominating in photographs within the additional time interval when Auston Matthews crashed to the ice close to the Leafs bench and never lengthy after that, Level scored.
The Leafs didn’t rating within the first interval or the third interval however in between, they scored three objectives towards Vasilevskiy within the second interval, whom they’ve had the higher of for many of the collection.
Nevertheless it was the 2 objectives by Tavares – he scored three objectives in six video games, greater than he had scored in any playoff collection as a Toronto participant – that appeared monumental for the Leafs captain and the Leafs group, that appeared to set the tone for a victory that was to return.
Dropping in additional time hurts and this loss did. Particularly with a lot going the Leafs manner. Particularly on an evening they could have deserved higher.
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