Lightning demolish Maple Leafs 7-3 in Game 1 of playoff

The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated Toronto Maple Leafs 7-3 in a spectacular fashion in the first game of the playoffs on Tuesday night.

Heck of a Game 1, boys. ⚡️

— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) April 19, 2023

Brayden Point bagged a brace, while Nikita Kucherov and Corey Perry had a goal and two assists. Anthony Cirelli , Ross Colton and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also found their names on the scoresheet.

Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots in his 1,00th start in the playoffs.

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Ryan O’Reilly, William Nylander and Calle Jarnkrok were the scorers for Toronto. Mitch Marner had three assists and Auston Matthews added two.

Golatender Ilya Samsonov made on 23 shots before being replaced by Joseph Woll at the start the third period. The rookie made 4 stops and allowed one goal.

A peculiar incident occurred midway through the game when Toronto winger Michael Bunting was whistled for a match penalty and was subsequently suspended for misconduct for an illegal check of the Tampa Bay’s Erik Cernak.

Toronto will look to redeem themselves in the second game, which will be held on Thursday night on their home turf.