Nick Paul scores 2, Lightning hold off Maple Leafs in Game 7

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Nick Paul came through with the best playoff performance of his career when the Tampa Bay Lightning needed it most and the two-time defending champions are moving on again.

Paul scored twice, including an incredible individual effort on the tiebreaking goal late in the second period, and the Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in Game 7 on Saturday night to win their first-round playoff series.

"The electricity in this building was nuts," said Paul, a native of Mississauga, Ontario. "To come in and work as hard as we did, there was no doubt in our game. We stuck together."

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Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nicholas Paul celebrates his second goal of the night against the Toronto Maple Leafs, during the second period in Game 7 of a first-round series in the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs Saturday, May 14, 2022, in Toronto.  (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 30 shots for the Lightning.

Morgan Rielly scored for Toronto, which hasn’t reached the second round since 2004 and is now 0-9 in elimination games over the last five postseasons after also losing 4-3 in Game 6 at Tampa, Florida, two nights earlier. Jack Campbell had 23 saves.

"A great hockey team," Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos said of the Maple Leafs. "They’ve got all the pieces. It’s not easy this time of the year. We’ve had some failures in the past ... you just move on and you just gotta get over that hump."

The Maple Leafs were once again unable to push through and finally flip a long, ugly narrative of playoff failures for a franchise that has now lost its last seven series, including six straight