Buds Bounce the Bolts: Leafs beat up on Lightning 5-0

Must win, desperation, crunch time, now or never, all phrases (and cliches) used to describe the importance of the Maple Leafs game Thursday night at St. Pete Times Forum against the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning. Coming into Thursday night's matchup the Bolts had won four in a row and had leap frogged the Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference standings. Toronto, after winning 3 in a row were shelled by the Florida Panthers 7-2 on Tuesday night. It was up to the Leafs to avenge a tough loss and salvage their late season trip to the Sunshine State.

The Leafs would break the game open Early in the 2nd period. With Toronto already up 1-0 after a Roman Polak goal in the 1st, Morgan Reilly would throw a low shot towards the net, and with the help of a Connor Brown screen, it was able to beat Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevsky to increase the Leafs lead to 2-0. Just 15 seconds later after Reilly's goal, Matt Hunwick's shot would bounce off the post and right onto the stick of Matt Martin who was able to bury the wide open opportunity. After the Leafs 3rd marker, the Lightning pulled Vasilevski in favour of former Kings goalie, Peter Budaj.

And just like everybody thought, Roman Polak, Morgan Reilly, and Matt Martin would have the Toronto Maple Leafs up 3-0 against the surging Tampa Bay Lightning.

Later in the second period Connor Brown would score on the Powerplay, and James Van Riemsdyk would also riffle home a rebound off of a Morgan Reilly point shot to extend Toronto's lead to 5-0.

The third period saw the Maple Leafs focus their attention towards the defensive side of the game. Despite getting outshot 12-2 in the final frame, the Leafs kept the Lightning off the board and played their way to an impressive 5-0 win over the Bolts.

Frederik Andersen was excellent between the pipes as he turned aside all 33 shots directed his way in the matchup. Andersen's play of late warrants some extremely high praise. In 3 of the Maple Leafs past 4 victories, the 27 year-old netminder has had to stop 30 or more shots. He was excellent for the Leafs all night especially on the Lightning's five powerplay opportunities, including a 5-on-3 chance for the Bolts. Andersen's most notable save of the night was when he shut down Lightning centre Braydon Point with an excellent breakaway save.

Credit also deserves to be given to the Maple Leafs depth players. Polak and Martin, two rather unlikely sources of offense were able to get the Leafs on the board and aided largely in putting this game out of reach. Morgan Reilly also performed well in Thursday night's win, the defenseman tallied a Goal and an Assist against the Bolts as he was able to bounce back from a very poor Tuesday night performance against the Panthers.

Tampa Bay seemed out of sorts in every aspect of the game Thursday night. While they were able to muster 33 shots on goal, the team was sloppy and turned the puck over 6 timess compared to Toronto's total of 1 giveaway. Andrei Vasilevsky did not have his best outing, although he has been dominant since the Ben Bishop trade, he was pulled just under 3 minutes into the 2nd period. The Lightning did not fair to well on the man advantage tonight either going 0/5.

With the win over Tampa Bay, and the 4-2 loss the New York Islanders suffered at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets, the Leafs leap over both squads and find themselves back into a playoff spot. The Maple Leafs total of 78 points now leads the Islanders and Lightning's total of 77 points each.

***Next Toronto Maple Leafs Game

vs. Chicago Blackhawks, Saturday, March 18th, 2017 (7:00PM)