Lightning Lose To Leafs 5-2 In Game 3

@jayRecher

Two late empty-net goals sealed the deal as the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Friday night at Amalie Arena to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series

After Tampa Bay fell behind 3-0, they stormed back to cut the Toronto lead to one, but a pair of empty net goals by Ilya Mikheyev put the game out of reach.

Jack Campbell made 32 saves for Toronto in the win. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 31 of 34 shots for Tampa Bay in defeat.

Morgan Rielly got the Leafs on the board first, scoring a power play goal at 4:54, after Lightning forward Pat Maroon was called for a delay of game penalty for flipping the puck over the glass.

The Bolts tried to find the equalizer after Toronto defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin was whistled for high sticking, but they were unable to convert. The Leafs, in fact, doubled their lead 9 seconds after the penalty expired when Colin Blackwell scored on a 3-on-1 rush to put the visitors up 2-0.

Steven Kampf scored at 5:52 of the 2nd period to give Toronto a 3-0 lead, and things looked bleak for Tampa Bay.

Until they didn't.

Ross Colton fired a one-timer past Campbell on the power play at 11:03 to make it 3-1 and you could feel the momentum starting to turn towards Tampa Bay.

Ondrej Palat snapped a shot high over Campbell at 5:43 of the 3rd to bring the Bolts within one, but unfortunately for the Amalie Arena faithful, that was the closest the Lightning would come to tying the game.

*****

SCORING SUMMARY

1st Period

1. Toronto - PPG - Rielly - (Marner, Matthews) - 4:54
2. Toronto - Blackwell - (Lyubushkin, Engvall) - 9:44

2nd Period

1. Toronto - Kampf - (Unassisted) - 5:52
2. Tampa Bay - PPG - Colton - (Sergachev, Palat) - 11:03

3rd Period

1. Tampa Bay - Palat - (Killorn, McDonagh) - 5:43
2. Toronto - Mikheyev - (Engvall) - 18:20
3. Toronto - Mikheyev (2) - (Engvall) - 19:55

*****

PENALTY SUMMARY

1st Period

1. Tampa Bay - Maroon - (Delay of Game) - 2:56
2. Toronto - Lyubushkin - (High Sticking) - 7:35
3. Tampa Bay - Bogosian - (High Sticking) - 10:52
4. Tampa Bay - Cernak - (Roughing) - 20:00

2nd Period

1. Tampa Bay - McDonagh - (Delay of Game) - 1:35
2. Toronto - Holl - (Holding) - 9:35
3. Tampa Bay - Cernak - (Roughing) - 20:00

3rd Period

1. Toronto - Muzzin - (Hooking) - 12:14

*****

What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning are back in action on Sunday night as they welcome back the Toronto Maple Leafs to Amalie Arena for Game 4 of this best-of-seven series. Puck drop is slated for 7:00pm with the pregame show starting at 6:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA & Lightning Power Play on the iHeartRadio app.

PHOTO : Getty Images