Campbell shines, Maple Leafs beat Lightning 5-2 in Game 3

TAMPA, FLORIDA - MAY 06: Jack Campbell #36 of the Toronto Maple Leafs stops a shot from Brandon Hagel #38 of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third period during Game Three of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena on May 06,

Jack Cambell had 32 saves — including three to protect the lead on a late power play — and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Friday night.

Ilya Mikheyer had two empty-net goals in the final two minutes, and Morgan Rielly, Colin Blackwell and David Kampf also scored to help Toronto take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference matchup.

Ross Colton and Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 31 saves.

Game 4 in Sunday night in Tampa.

The Lightning are 16-0 in games following a playoff loss over the last three postseasons, including a 5-3 win in Game 2 of this series.

The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions were unable to build on the momentum of that victory, though, yielding goals to Rielly and Blackwell in the opening 10 minutes before falling behind 3-0 when Toronto took advantage of a turnover with Kampf’s wrist shot from in front of Vasilevskiy.

Colton’s power-play goal at 11:03 of the second period gave Tampa Bay hope for comeback, and Palat's 38th career playoff goal trimmed Toronto's lead to 3-2 with just over 14 minutes remaining in the third.

Campbell never flinched, though, standing tall on Tampa Bay's final power-play opportunity and the making another big stop down the stretch to thwart Brayden Point's attempt to tie the score.

Vasilevskiy was pulled for an extra attacker with 2:20 left. Mikheyer put the Maple Leafs up 4-2 at 18:20 of the period, and his second empty-netter came with 5 seconds remaining.

Toronto, which hasn't won a playoff series since 2004, won the opening game of the series at home 5-0.

___

More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports