Maple Leafs erase 3-goal deficit in final frame to beat Lightning in overtime

Sheldon Keefe had a strong sense Alexander Kerfoot was going to have a big moment for his team.

The Maple Leafs head coach told him as much back in the winter — he just didn't know when.

It arrived on a memorable Monday night in Florida.

Kerfoot scored on a power play at 4:14 of overtime as Toronto roared back from a 4-1 deficit with just over 10 minutes remainingin the third period to stun the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 and take a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

"A guy that works as hard as he does, and as good as he is for the leadership and the spirit of our team, it's the kind of guy that usually gets rewarded and should get rewarded," Keefe said.

With a tripping penalty to Lightning defenceman Mikhail Sergachev winding down, Kerfoot deflected a Mark Giordano point shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy to move the Leafs within one win of their first series victory since 2004 and spark wild celebrations among pockets of Toronto fans at Amalie Arena.

"That's what you dream about — scoring goals in overtime in the playoffs," said the Leafs forward. "You just want to help the team out in any way you can. There was a lot of belief in that room, even after the first two periods.

"We started to put the heat on them a little bit."

WATCH l Kerfoot's OT goal helps Maple Leafs push Lightning to brink:

Auston Matthews, with two goals in the third to drag his team back into the fight, and Noel Acciari also scored for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov made 27 stops for the Leafs, who improved to 2-17 over their last 19 post-season contests when leading a series.

William Nylander had three assists, while Marner and Ryan O'Reilly each had two for Toronto, which famously botched a 4-1 lead in the third period of Game 7 against the Boston Bruins in 2013 before losing in OT.

The current core has suffered through a string of its own playoff failures, but the script just might — finally — have flipped.

"Strange game, how our sport works out," said Keefe, whose Leafs lost in seven games to the Lightning in last spring's first round after leading that series 2-1 and 3-2. "Certainly feels different and things tend to go your way when that's the case. But let's not get carried away.

Alex Killorn scored twice for Tampa, while Sergachev, with a goal and an assist, and Steven Stamkos provided the rest of the offence. Vasilevskiy, who has allowed 16 goals in three straight losses, stopped 32 shots. Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman each added two assists.