TORONTO - John Tavares registered his first playoff hat trick as the Toronto Maple Leafs responded in impressive fashion off a disastrous Game 1 with an emphatic 7-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday to even their first-round playoff series 1-1.
Mitch Marner scored twice and set up another, while William Nylander, with a goal and an assist, and Zach Aston-Reese provided the rest of the offence for Toronto.
Morgan Rielly tied a franchise record with four assists. Auston Matthews added two of his own for the Leafs, whose stars stepped up in a big way in a big moment.
Pulled in Tuesday's ugly 7-3 loss, Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves for Toronto.
Ian Cole and Corey Perry replied for Tampa, which was minus injured top-4 defencemen Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak.
Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has played every second of Lightning post-season action since 2020, allowed seven goals on 37 shots.