Four Game 5’s took place in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday, and the biggest story to come out of that is that the defending, two-time champion Tampa Bay Lightning could be about to be eliminated in the first round. That’s because the Toronto Maple Leafs took a 3-2 edge in the series thanks to a 4-3 home win. The visitors scored the game’s first two goals within the opening 6:30 of the first period, but the Leafs responded as William Nylander (one goal, two assists) and John Tavares (one goal, one assist) led the fight back. Auston Matthews scored the winner with 6:06 remaining, and now the Leafs can wrap up this crazy series back in Tampa.
Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Kings won a wild Game 5 by taking down the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 on the road to head back home with a shot to clinch the second-round berth. Having led 3-1 after two and 4-2 in the third, it looked like they’d easily win, but the Oilers got a pair of goals from Leon Draisaitl in the last ten minutes to force overtime. Once in the extra period, though, Adrian Kempe made it a short night by scoring 1:12 in and clinching the ‘W.’ It was a second goal for him on the night and added to an earlier assist he registered. In the other two games, the Carolina Hurricanes held serve at home to pick up a dominant 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins as Seth Jarvis had two goals and Tony DeAngelo posted three points (one goal, two assists) while the St. Louis Blues won 5-2 on the road to the Minnesota Wild thanks, in large part, to a Vladimir Tarasenko hat trick. All three flew in during the third period, negating what had been an early Kirill Kaprizov-inspired lead.
