Lightning bury Maple Leafs early in Game 4 to even series

One minute into the first period, Steven Stamkos scored to start a barrage by the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning swept the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-3 to tie their first round playoff series at 2-2.

Ross Colton had two goals. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Pat Maroon each had two. Ondrej Palt, Ondrej Perry, Corey Perry, and Pat Maroon all had two. Nikita Kucherov also contributed two assists.

Toronto’s William Nylander scored twice, while Jake Muzzin beat Vasilevskiy to win the game.

Jack Campbell let five goals in 16 shots before Erik Kallgren was pulled for the Leafs. This came on a night that could have seen the Leafs secure a 3-1 win in the best-of-7 matchup. Kallgren was the last man standing with 10 stops.

For Tuesday’s Game 5, the series moves to Scotiabank Arena, while Game 6 is at Amalie Arena on Thursday. Game 7 is possible in Toronto.

WATCH: The Leafs lose to Lightning in Game 4.

In an effort to get more from a top-line that was largely neutralized by Anthony Cirelli and Brayden Point in Game 3, with Tampa receiving the last change at home (Tampa), Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe made Alexander Kerfoot, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner the new wingers to the team’s starting line-up.

Toronto finished the regular season with 51.5 points, five more than the Lightning, for second place in the Atlantic Division. Toronto started its third line, third defence pair, but was on the back foot when the puck dropped. Tampa’s top units were coming in waves against a skittish enemy.

The Leafs hadn’t even crossed centre when Stamkos — robbed by Campbell on a late one-timer in Game 3 with Tampa pressing to tie — blasted another of his patented bullets a minute into the first to blow the roof off the sold-out rink after Toronto defenceman Justin Holl couldn’t clear the zone.

Tampa made it 3-0 as the onslaught continued with a second fourth-line goal when Maroon jumped on another miscue by a Toronto defender — Morgan Rielly was the culprit this time — and poked home his own rebound at 7:58 after Campbell made a terrific pad stop.

Vasilevskiy wasn’t given much at the opposite end of the match with shots sitting at 8-1. But, he was called to work in the final period when Toronto began to show some life.

Matthews performed a great backhand off of the crossbar.

At 3:17 into the middle period, the Lightning put all hope of a comeback to an end when Colton’s snapshot was shot off Campbell’s hand for the centre’s 2nd goal in as many games.

Tampa followed that up with a Perry goal that made it 5-0 — the third from a Lightning fourth-liner — on a long 5-on-3 man advantage at 5:25 after a John Tavares was whistled for hooking and David Kampf fired the puck out of play nine seconds later for a delay-of-game call.

Campbell continued to play for a few more minutes but was eventually pulled out in favor of Kallgren after a TV timeout following a lengthy chat with Keefe.

Toronto was brought on board by Nylander with a goal at the man advantage at 2:17 of the third. It ended Vasilevskiy’s hopes of a seventh playoff shutout. Before adding his second playoff with the teams skating 4 against 4 at 12.00, Nylander added another playoffs.

Kallgren was pulled by the Leafs with less than six minutes remaining in regulation. Palat, however, scored into an empty net just before Muzzin’s goal at 15:41 to make it 3-1.

Toronto hasn’t won a playoff round since 2004 — before the NHL instituted a salary cap and two lockouts ago — and is looking to take a step towards ending a Cup drought dating back to 1967.

Toronto fans gathered in the tunnel leading to the team’s ice surface and began “Go Leafs Go!” chants about half an hour prior to warmups. Meanwhile, Tampa’s Game Operations crew trotted the visitors with a “1967” sign displayed on the massive scoreboard. This was before the Lightning’s opening faceoff.