Tavares scores 3, Maple Leafs top Lightning in Game 2, tie East 1st Round

John Tavares scored a hat trick for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 7-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.

The best-of-7 series is tied 1-1. Game 3 is at Tampa Bay on Saturday.

Mitchell Marner scored twice and had an assist, Morgan Rielly had four assists, William Nylander had a goal and an assist and Ilya Samsonov made 19 saves for the Maple Leafs, who are the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division. Toronto lost Game 1, 7-3 on Tuesday.

Ian Cole and Corey Perry scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for the Lightning, who were playing without defensemen Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak. Each sustained injuries in Game 1.

Marner gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead 47 seconds into the first period on the power play when he received a pass from Rielly and took a slapshot from above the right face-off circle using Mikhail Sergachev as a screen.

Tavares made it 2-0 at 12:45, taking a pass from Rielly and shooting from the left hashmark.

Toronto killed off two minor penalties prior to Tavares’ first goal, hooking on Matthew Knies — who was making his Stanley Cup Playoff debut — at 4:23 and roughing on Jake McCabe at 10:03.

Nylander extended it to 3-0 at 15:08 when he shot from the left face-off dot with six attackers on the ice during a delayed double-minor high sticking penalty on Steven Stamkos.

Tampa Bay cut it to 3-1 at 8:58 of the second period after Cole went forehand to backhand in the slot and put it past a sprawling Samsonov’s glove.

The Maple Leafs responded with three goals in 4:48 to grow the lead to five. Tavares put in a rebound at 13:14 to make it 4-1 after Nylander deflected Rielly’s shot in the slot.

Zach Aston-Reese pushed it to 5-1 at 15:52 when he jammed in a rebound in the goal crease from David Kampf’s shot.

Marner made it 6-1 at 18:02 after his shot from above the right face-off circle deflected off Brandon Hagel in the slot.

Perry cut it to 6-2 at 12:38 of the third period on a 2-on-1 with Pierre-Edourd Bellemare.

Three seconds after the Lightning killed off a 5-on-3 power play for 59 seconds, Tavares completed his first playoff hat trick at 15:06 for the 7-2 final.