Maple Leafs rally to top Lightning in OT in Game 4, extend series lead

TAMPA -- Alex Kerfoot scored a power-play goal at 4:14 of overtime, and the Toronto Maple Leafs rallied for a 5-4 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Amalie Arena on Monday.

Kerfoot won it on a redirection of Mark Giordano's shot after Toronto scored three goals in the third period to erase a 4-1 deficit.
"That's what you dream about, scoring goals in overtime in the playoffs," Kerfoot said. "There was a lot of belief in that room after the first two periods. We started to put the heat on them a little bit and our big guys came through and got it to overtime."
The Maple Leafs lead the best-of-7 series 3-1. Game 5 is in Toronto on Thursday.
Auston Matthews scored twice, and William Nylander had three assists for the Maple Leafs, the No. 2 seed from the Atlantic Division. Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves.
Alex Killorn scored twice, and Mikhail Sergachev had a goal and an assist for the Lightning, the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves.
"It was all going good, but in the end special teams became a factor in the game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "They got two big power-play goals in the end and we didn't cash in on our chance early in the third. Take one of theirs away or we get one … it's a different story."
RELATED: [Complete Maple Leafs vs. Lightning series coverage]
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Morgan Rielly tied the game at 16:04 of the third period with a shot from the left point through traffic.
"I thought we came out in the third and played well," Rielly said. "I thought we were playing well before that. We were in a position going into the third down 4-1, that's not where you want to be. But to have the compete and the jam to go out there and come back is a good sign."

Matthews made it 4-2 at 9:44 with a snap shot from inside the left circle. He scored again on the power play at 12:29 with a tip off a shot from Nylander to make it 4-3.
"About halfway through the second period, we started to find our game a little bit and the ice started to shift a little bit even though we were down by three," Matthews said. "But the attitude and the mindset in the locker room was to just go out there and chip away."
Killorn gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 9:57 of the first period with a power-play goal off of a pass to the crease from Nikita Kucherov.
"This is a difficult one to process at the moment," Killorn said. "Having that lead and letting it slip away is tough, but we've got to get over it. They're a good team and their big-time players came through in a big way and I think we just sat back too much. We were a little too comfortable with that lead."
Sergachev made it 2-0 at 18:27 with a shot from the top of the left circle after a set-up pass from Kucherov.
Noel Acciari cut it to 2-1 at 4:51 of the second period with a redirection of a shot by Justin Holl that was going wide of the net.
"I hope that we look at this as a positive sign of the spirit of our team and what we can overcome," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "I hope they take that and recognize that we have to keep pushing. The team we found a way to beat tonight, they are who they are because they very rarely lose two in a row, obviously don't lose three in a row very often and winning four in a row is going to be even harder. That's not lost on us."

Steven Stamkos scored his first goal of the series to make it 3-1 Lightning at 11:31 when Victor Hedman's shot went in off his left skate.
"We were on pucks, we were getting pucks behind them and strong with our forecheck and we made it hard on them," Tampa Bay forward Anthony Cirelli said. "I think we got away from that a little bit in the third period, too much sitting back."
Killorn extended the Lightning lead to 4-1 at 18:49 with a shot from the left circle that beat Samsonov to the far post.
"We've scored enough goals to win, but in the end you've got to keep them out of the net," Cooper said. "You can't be giving up this amount of goals. I don't care if it's the regular season or playoffs especially. You put four on the board and that should be a win. But in the end, you've got to defend and keep the puck out of your net. We didn't do it enough."
NOTES: Lightning forward Brandon Hagel missed a penalty shot at 7:45 of the first period after being tripped by Rielly. ...Tampa Bay is 1-8 in overtime playoff games since 2021. .. .Maple Leafs defenseman Luke Schenn had a game-high 10 hits. ...Killorn hadn't scored in a playoff game since Game 5 of the 2021 Eastern Conference Final against the New York Islanders. ... Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner had two assists and has two or more points in each game of the series (10 points; two goals, eight assists).