Campbell, Maple Leafs hold off Lightning in Game 3 of Eastern First Round

TAMPA --Jack Campbell made 32 saves, and the Toronto Maple Leafs held on for a 5-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Amalie Arena on Friday.

Toronto leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 will be here on Sunday.
"Coming into this rink, it's a tough rink," Campbell said. "Their fans are into it and their team is always buzzing. We did a great job of having a strong start tonight, especially after Game 2 (a 5-3 loss on Wednesday). The sacrifices every single guy was making in front of me tonight, blocking shots, getting into lanes, and making it tough to get things to the net, was huge."
Colin Blackwell scored his first playoff goal, Pierre Engvall had three assists, and Morgan Rielly and David Kampf each had a goal for the Maple Leafs, the No. 2 seed from the Atlantic Division.
Ondrej Palat had a goal and an assist, Ross Colton scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves for the Lightning, the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic.
"We pushed, but sitting up here now we're still down 2-1 (in the series)," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "We can sit here and pat ourselves on the back all night long and say, 'Hey, great job pushing at the end,' but] it's still ... you're down 2-1."
***[RELATED: [Complete Maple Leafs vs. Lightning series coverage]*
Colton made it 3-1 at 11:03 of the second period with a one-timer off a pass from Mikhail Sergachev on the power play. He had a chance to make it 3-2 at 15:22, but the shot went off the far post.
"
Cal [Foote]
had a nice shot, and I think it hit
[Brandon] Hagel's
stick and then got to me right on the back door," Colton said. "I think it went cross-crease and hit the other post. Just an unlucky bounce."
Palat did cut it to 3-2 at 5:43 of the third period with a shot from the left circle that went through the legs of Toronto forward Ondrej Kase and over the blocker of Campbell.
"It's not ideal to be behind, you are going to be behind at times and they did force us to chase it," Cooper said. "But it's just hard to chase it when you're in the penalty box the whole time. When you don't take any penalties, like we did in the third, and you have a pretty good period."
The Lightning then had a chance to tie it at 12:14 when Nicholas Paul drove around the defense, but the forward was stopped by the right toe of Campbell. Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin was called for hooking on the play, and on the ensuing power play, Campbell slid across the crease to stop a one-timer from the left circle by Steven Stamkos off a cross-ice pass from Nikita Kucherov.
"It was a pretty nice save and a pretty crucial time of the game. That's what he does," Toronto forward Auston Matthews said. "He gives us confidence every time he's out there. … He has a lot of fun out there and I think that's the most important part for him, when he's playing really well, he's having a lot of fun out there. You could see that in his play tonight. He made a lot of saves, but I think none bigger than that one."

The Lightning were 1-for-3 on the power play. The Maple Leafs were 1-for-5.
"Our penalty killers are amazing in front of me, and they've been doing well all season," Campbell said. "Sometimes the quality of players that Tampa has, they're going to make great plays. They made a great play there (to set up the Stamkos shot), and fortunately it stayed out."
Ilya Mikheyev scored his first playoff goal into an empty net at 18:20 to make it 4-2 before adding another with five seconds remaining for the 5-2 final.
"Getting out to the lead early really benefited us," Matthews said. "'Soup' made some unbelievable saves. All throughout our lineup guys stepped up when they had to and made plays when they needed to be made."

Reilly gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 4:54 of the first period on the power play, scoring on a loose puck after Mitchell Marner's shot attempt went off the skate of Michael Bunting.
Blackwell extended the lead to 2-0 at 9:44 when he finished a 3-on-1 rush.
Kampf made it 3-0 at 5:52 of the second period after he intercepted a pass by Hagel near center ice and scored from the high slot through Tampa Bay defenseman Zach Bogosian.
"The puck was in the neutral zone and I took it," Kampf said. "It was almost 2-on-1 and I just tried to shoot it between his legs and it goes in. I'm very happy for it."
NOTES:Muzzin was plus-2 with five hits and two blocked shots. ... Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was minus-3 in a game-high 24:56 of ice time. ... Marner had an assist and has six points (two goals, four assists) in the series. … Maple Leafs forward Jason Spezza had two shots on goal and one hit in 8:23 of ice time in his first game of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. … Toronto defenseman Justin Holl had three hits and one blocked shot in 13:40 of ice time in his first game of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. … Maple Leafs defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin had an assist for his first NHL playoff point.