Toronto Maple Leafs Give Up Three Goal Lead to Tampa Bay and Lose 4-3

The Toronto Maple Leafs have once against entered the gallows of shame in their 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay Lightning. In what should have been a landslide victory, Toronto managed to give up a three goal lead in the third period.

Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov, Ryan McDonagh, and Victor Hedman each scored for Tampa in the third period to tie the game 3-3. However, halfway through the third, Alex Kilhorn scored to give Tampa Bay a 4-3 lead and as they say, the rest is history, just not history one wishes to be part of. Last night’s win was the second time in Tampa Bay franchise history that the team recorded 50 wins in a season.

Last night’s win pushed Tampa Bay ahead of Boston by five points and placed them in first place in the Eastern Conference. Yanni Gourde had two game assists and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has twenty-seven saves on the night and recorded his forty-first win for the season.

Tony Cirelli sent a pass to Alex Kilhorn who scored the winning goal at nine minute, fourteen second mark of the third putting Tampa ahead after trailing behind three goals for much of the game. Toronto’s James van Riemsdyk added two goals for the Leafs and goaltender Fredrik Andersen was back in the net after being out for two games due to an injury to his upper body. Andersen was successful in stopping twenty-one sots last night.

Ryan Calihan, a forward with Tampa had to exit the game late in the first period after getting injured on the boards with Toronto’s Josh Leivo. The two got into tangled up against the boards in what saw Calihan exiting with an injury to his shoulder and right arm.

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Toronto had come out strong in the first period with James van Riemsdyk scoring at the 15-minute mark of the first period and scored again early in the second while in a power play position. Zach Hyman added to the Leafs lead and scored with a wrist shot after a turnover by Tampa’s Tyler Johnson.

One thing is certain, for Leaf fans this is, sadly, not so uncommon. The club has a history of coming out strong only to fall apart and become laughing stocks on the ice. Last night’s embarrassing loss puts the club down to third in the Atlantic Division and are sitting 43-23 for the season.

While Andersen was in his first game back and possibly not 100%, it is clear that Toronto needs to get focused and start closing gaps and ultimately letting other teams get into scoring positions. Hockey sports betting sites rarely favour the Leafs, and really, there is little reason to favour them as so often they fail to get the job done when under pressure, especially against a first-place team such as Tampa Bay.