Maple Leafs get even with shorthanded Lightning in Game 2

TORONTO — Lightning coach Jon Cooper was much more frustrated with losses during the regular season than he was following Tampa Bay’s 7-2 loss to the Maple Leafs in Game 2 of their opening-round Eastern Conference playoff series Thursday night at Scotiabank Arena.

In the regular season, he was worried about his team developing bad habits. At times, he was miffed by the veteran group’s lack of urgency.

But when it comes to playoff time, Cooper still has the ultimate trust that his group won’t let losses build. That’s what happens when you’ve won 11 of 12 postseason series over the past three years.

“It’s a seven-game series,” he said flatly at the postgame podium. “It’s not a one-game one-and-done. We’ll be all right.”

Maybe it’s important that he sets a calm tone. And the Lightning blew an opportunity to put the Maple Leafs’ playoff hopes into panic mode after winning the series opener Tuesday.

The Lighting were outmanned without injured top defensemen Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak on Thursday, but Cooper rebuffed any notion that their absences had anything to do with the loss.

The Lightning took too many early penalties, committed costly turnovers that ended with pucks in their net and fell behind big early, forcing them to chase the game, some of the issues that plagued them during the regular season and had the Maple Leafs the popular choice to win the series before it started.

But a group that has been through the highs and lows of postseasons past was less concerned about what happened on the ice than about what happens next. And the Lightning rarely lost two in a row in the playoffs during their Cup final runs.

“Just some little detailed areas where we were on it the first night (and the Maple Leafs) weren’t, and it was almost just the polar opposite (in Game 2),” captain Steven Stamkos said. “They played really well, and we didn’t do the things that we did well in Game 1. We should expect more from our group with the experience that we have. We know teams are going to come out, especially if they lose one at home.”

The Lightning take a series split back to Tampa for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Monday. They played well at Amalie Arena in the regular season, posting the second-most home points in the league.

“It’s 1-1,” Stamkos said. “We wanted to take a game here, we did, and we’ve been through a lot. It’s not a roller coaster of a series. It’s managing the emotions and come back home, and now it’s our turn to have a response game.”

The Lightning’s Game 1 win had planted a seed of doubt in a Maple Leafs team that hasn’t won a postseason series in 17 seasons, but Tampa Bay wasn’t able to build on that in Game 2.

With captain John Tavares leading the way with a hat trick, Toronto regained life by taking control of the game early and never letting go of momentum.

Just as the Lightning jumped ahead with a three-goal first period in Game 1, the Maple Leafs did the same in Game 2, opening the scoring in the first minute and taking a three-goal lead into the locker room at the first intermission.

Lightning defenseman Ian Cole’s tripping penalty 40 seconds into the game put Toronto on a power play, and forward Mitch Marner rifled a slap shot from above the right circle past Andrei Vasilevskiy seven seconds into the man advantage.

Tavares made it 2-0 12:45 in after he won an offensive-zone faceoff and drifted toward the slot, where defenseman Morgan Rielly (four assists in the game) found him for a one-timer through traffic.

A delayed high-sticking penalty on Stamkos then gave the Maple Leafs a 6-on-5 advantage, and forward William Nylander rocketed a shot from the left circle over Vasilevskiy’s glove to make it 3-0 just over 15 minutes into the game.

The Lightning missed Hedman, out with an undisclosed injury that forced him from Game 1 after one period, and Cernak, who took a hit to the head in Game 1 from Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting that landed Bunting a three-game suspension.

Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov, who was pulled for the third period of Game 1 after allowing six goals, stopped the first 15 shots he faced Thursday before Cole put the Lightning on the scoreboard. The defenseman took a pass from Stamkos, cut in front and scored on a backhand shot to pull Tampa Bay within 3-1 nine minutes into the second period.

At that point, the next goal was huge. Toronto got it, taking advantage of a Lightning neutral-zone turnover to fuel a rush. Tavares was able to get behind the defense and scored on a rebound of a Nylander shot.

“Obviously, turnovers (were) one (problem); penalties was another,” Cole said. “You give a great power play enough chances and they’re going to start scoring. So a lot of things we need to clean up all over the ice, and we’ll look at the tape and start to do that.”

With Toronto up 6-2, Tavares scored his third goal on a 5-on-3 power play, shooting a puck into Vasilevskiy that leaked under him and slowly slid over the goal line.

“In the end, did we play hard enough to win?” Cooper said. “Probably not. Was there any team that was a little bit more urgent? Just look at (the first two games of) last year’s series (between the teams in the first round). It’s the exact same, just flip it, and now we’re going back to Tampa.”

Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieintheYard.

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