Tavares's 1st career playoff hat trick helps Maple Leafs bounce back, rout Bolts to even series

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.

Games 3 and 4 of the best-of-seven series go Saturday and Monday in Florida.

Facing a 0-2 deficit against an opponent that's a perfect 10-0 all-time when winning the first two games of a series, Toronto scored 47 seconds into the opening period on a power play to ignite a pulsating Scotiabank Arena when Marner beat Vasilevskiy with a slapshot on the first shot.

MITCHELLY MARNER!!!