Coach Keefe credits crowd for stoking Leafs energy in win
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Sheldon Keefe handed out many accolades after Monday night’s stunning 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening game of their best-of-seven playoff series:
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- To his penalty-kill for holding the Lightning snipers to two shots during a first-period major.
- To Mitch Marner’s three-point night ,which included his first post-season goal since 2019.
- To Auston Matthews for winning his head-to-head match with Steven Stamkos by scoring twice.
- To Jack Campbell’s 24-save shutout.
- And the response from his team as the prediction of ‘borderline violence’ was manifested in 123 combined penalty minutes after a third-period brawl — with time out for blood to be scraped off the ice.
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But the Maple Leafs’ head coach also saved high praise for what he saw and heard behind him.
“I thought the crowd (19,338 at Scotiabank Arena) was the first star tonight,” Keefe said. “They were unbelievable. I thought they carried us through that kill (from a needless Kyle Clifford hit) and they didn’t let up the rest of the game.
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“I was asked down the stretch about home ice, but I didn’t feel it would be that important. That was my first playoff game coaching in a full building and you could feel the love for this team.
“It was a good night — but it was one night.”
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Wayne Simmonds spoke on Monday morning of it being up to the Leafs to “change the narrative” on their playoff failings. And the focus has indeed switched from Toronto’s five straight first-round flops to the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions now playing from behind.
It was the first five-goal win by Toronto in the playoffs since an 8-3 pounding of San Jose in 1994.
“We played fast, played through the contact,” said Matthews. “Our penalty-kill was huge, Soupy was incredible and we capitalized. The place was hummin’ … But it’s a long series.”
Indeed, that’s not the first time in winning eight straight series that the Lightning has been lit up. Though not ever against the Leafs and not with Stamkos getting razzed in his hometown while star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was down and out a few times.
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Tampa coach Jon Cooper was mystified that his team was so lax with its long power play, which followed an ineffective early minor on the Leafs.
“I’m not sure the Leafs had to play very well to beat us tonight,” Cooper said. “You’ve got to win four, but you don’t want to give teams any freebies.”
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Overcoming a potential setback when Clifford was booted for boarding Ross Colton seven minutes in, the Leafs met that challenge head on, generating three odd-man rushes.
The top six Lightning scorers in team playoff history are sprinkled through their power play, but the Leafs were totally dedicated, displaying the same fervour that earned them a league-high 13 short-handed goals this year.
“There is great belief on our team,” Keefe said after the morning skate. “We know what’s at stake, what we’ve been through to get to this point and know what we’re playing for; our fans, our city and each other. It’s a great challenge, but a great opportunity to push past this (first-round hump).”
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If killing that early five-minute major didn’t show that the Leafs had no opening-night playoff jitters, fighting through three more short-handed situations and scoring twice on special teams in the middle period removed all doubt.
The game got away from the Bolts in the second period when Matthews cashed a 5-on-3 chance as the Lightning failed to grasp that cross-checking will be called closely in this series, scoring on a slap shot to make it 2-0. Then Kampf put an exclamation mark on his PK work, blocking a shot and out-racing big defenceman Victor Hedman to the puck in neutral ice, scoring on the breakaway and then leaping into the glass in an uncharacteristic show of emotion.
Marner already had collected two assists before ending his painful scoring drought, slapping his stick loudly for a Morgan Rielly drop pass. faking Vasilevskiy almost right out of his net and burying it. Matthews added another in the third. Defenceman Jake Muzzin had the first Leafs goal, converting Ondrej Kase’s feed from the corner through traffic and past Vasilevskiy late in the first period.
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It was the first Leafs playoff win over a defending Cup champion since May 5, 2001 at New Jersey and reversed a 1-4 Game 1 record i at SBA since 2002.
Campbell recorded his second playoff shutout.
Much was made of the Leafs setting a franchise record 54 wins, 115 points, 315 goals and a plus-62 differential. But could they keep that domination against such a seasoned foe in May, with home ice advantage or not?
Last year, it was the injury to John Tavares that brought Game 1 momentum to a halt and this time it could have been a self-inflicted wound. Clifford, one of the fourth-line forwards Keefe thought he could trust not to cross the line of intensity, did just that.
“A poor decision,” agreed Keefe, though he insisted the former L.A. Kings’ Cup champion Clifford was not done in this series.
The crowd was in a towel-waving frenzy by the time the major ended on a Nikita Kucherov penalty.
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When the smoke cleared after the third period scrums, five players had misconducts amid minors for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct.
“Standing up for each other — I think that’s what we all got out of it,” Matthews said of the episode.
Game 2 is Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena.
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2022-05-03 11:06:02Z
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