Maple Leafs end 19-year first round playoff drought with OT win over Tampa

The Toronto Maple Leafs exorcised two decades’ worth of playoff demons, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in overtime Saturday night to win their opening round NHL playoff series in six games.

John Tavares scored the game-winner at 4:36 of overtime to send Toronto into the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

The Leafs captain threw a puck in front on the winning sequence that went in off Lightning defenceman Darren Raddysh’s skate and in to send Toronto players spilling off the bench.

Auston Matthews opened the scoring for the Maple Leafs with his fifth of the postseason almost 14 minutes into the second period. That lead stood until early in third when Steven Stamkos notched the tying goal.

The Leafs last made the NHL’s final eight in 2004 – before the league instituted a salary cap, before Twitter was launched, and just over four months after Paul Martin became Canada’s 21st prime minister – when they beat the Ottawa Senators in seven games.

Joe Nieuwendyk was the hero that night with two goals in the first period on a shaky Patrick Lalime. Toronto would go on to lose a second-round matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers when Jeremy Roenick scored the clinching goal in overtime in Game 6.

The wait for another series triumph in hockey’s biggest market would last 6,948 days.

The Leafs entered Saturday with 10 straight losses in games where they had a chance to eliminate an opponent dating back to the start of the Matthews-Mitch Marner era in 2018, including a 4-2 loss in Game 5 this spring on home ice, in the process of stumbling at the post-season’s first hurdle six years running.

Including a first-round defeat in 2013, Toronto’s record in games where it could clinch a series sat at 0-11 before puck drop _ the second-longest streak in NHL history.

The Maple Leafs now await the winners of the series between the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers. They will face off in Game 7 on Sunday night.