John Tavares registered his first playoff hat trick as the Toronto Maple Leafs responded in impressive fashion off a disastrous Game 1 with an emphatic 7-2 victory over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday to even their first-round playoff series 1-1.
Morgan Rielly tied a franchise playoff record with four assists. Auston Matthews added two of his own for the Leafs, whose stars stepped up in a big way in a big moment.
Pulled in Tuesday's ugly 7-3 loss, Ilya Samsonov made 19 saves for Toronto. WATCH | Tavares scores hat trick in emphatic Game 2 win: Ian Cole and Corey Perry replied for Tampa, which was minus injured top-4 defencemen Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has played every second of Lightning post-season action since 2020, allowed seven goals on 35 shots.