Maple Leafs not getting 'carried away' after Game 4 win

TAMPA -- If the Toronto Maple Leafs are to finally exorcise the Stanley Cup Playoff demons that have haunted them for almost two decades, they can point to the third period of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round on Monday as their steppingstone.

In the end, it proved the most improbable of comebacks, the type of storybook ending there have been far too few of for a team that hasn't won a postseason series since 2004.
All seemed lost for the Maple Leafs midway through the third period against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They trailed 4-1. They were facing arguably the best goalie in the world in Andrei Vasilevskiy. They were facing a team that had never lost a postseason game when leading by three goals in the third period in its history.
That is, until Toronto pulled off the unimaginable.
Auston Matthews buried two goals in a 2:45 second span before Morgan Rielly sent the game to overtime, where forward Alex Kerfoot sealed the deal with a power-play goal at 4:14 to give the Maple Leafs
a 5-4 victory
and a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.
Game 5 will now shift to Toronto on Thursday (7 p.m. ET: TBS, CBC, SN, TVAS, BSSUN) in front of what should be a raucous crowd preparing to hold a long-awaited victory party.
RELATED: [Complete Maple Leafs vs. Lightning series coverage]
But there is no time for celebration. Not for a Maple Leafs team whose last series win was against the Ottawa Senators in the 2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. And not against the Lightning, who have reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of the previous three seasons.
"Let's not get carried away here," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We've got a tough task here to finish off this series."
Especially against a Lightning team that had not lost three playoff games in a row since being swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2019 Eastern Conference First Round.
Until now.
"We're going to see a very important game coming up," Keefe said. "I hope our guys take that and recognize that, let's keep pushing here. The team we beat here tonight, they are where they are because they very rarely lose two in a row, and they obviously don't lose three in a row very often.
"Winning that fourth one is going to be even harder. That's not lost on us. We'll make sure our group is ready and that our message is passed on that we've got to continue to be better."
The Maple Leafs have been here before.
In 2021, they held a 3-1 series lead against the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup First Round. They then lost the next three games, including 3-1 in Game 7 in Toronto.
No disrespect to those Canadiens, but this Lightning team is more talented, having won the Stanley Cup in 2021 (ironically against that Montreal team) and 2022. That's why it's so important for Toronto to finally deliver the dagger and finish off Tampa Bay when it has the chance.
Matthews agreed, although he cautioned that it stands to be the most difficult of tasks.
"The fourth one is obviously the toughest one," Matthews said. "We know who we're up against and what they've accomplished, especially in the past couple of years. So this one is to enjoy tonight, then we have a couple of days to recharge and rest and refocus because we know they're going to be ready to come at us."
For much of the first two periods on Monday, that's exactly what the Lightning did. And when the Maple Leafs entered the locker room after the second period down 4-1 and knowing they would start the third on a 4-on-3 penalty kill, it seemed dire.
Except the players wouldn't let it be.
"The feeling in the room was, 'Let's go out there and let's give ourselves a chance,'" forward Ryan O'Reilly said. "And I was impressed with how we went out and did that."
Thanks in part to Matthews.
The 25-year-old has often been a beast through his first seven regular seasons, including winning the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP last year. At the same time, fans have been longing to see more signature postseason moments from him, ones in which he dominates the way he can.
In the third period of Game 4, he did exactly that, making it 4-2 at 9:44 before cutting it to 4-3 with a power-play goal at 12:29.
"At that point, you know you're right there, you're one shot away," Keefe said. "You could feel the momentum."
Sure enough, Rielly, who scored the overtime winner in Toronto's 4-3 victory in Game 3, provided heroics again, tying the game at 16:04. In a span of 6:20, they had erased a 4-1 deficit and set the stage for overtime.
Enter Kerfoot, whose redirection of Mark Giordano's shot put the Maple Leafs one victory away from advancing to the second round.
Kerfoot did not have the best regular season, finishing with 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists) in 82 games. Still, Keefe told the forward during the season that he was going to score a huge goal for the team moving forward. He didn't know when. He just knew he would.
Kerfoot did just that on Monday.
"It's what you dream about, scoring an overtime winner in the playoffs," he said. "You want to help the team out any way you can. And there was a lot of belief in that room, even after the first two periods."
Keefe added that the vibe around the team is "different" this time. There's a confidence here, something O'Reilly knows all about after he helped the St. Louis Blues win the Stanley Cup in 2019.
"These last two games, we haven't played our best and we've found ways to win," O'Reilly said. "I think it shows we can go up against anyone."