UNDATED (AP) — Morgan Rielly scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, Jack Campbell made 27 saves, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
William Nylander scored his third goal in as many games for Toronto, which hasn’t won a playoff series since 2004. Game 4 is Tuesday night in Montreal. Nick Suzuki had the lone goal for Montreal, and Carey Price stopped 27 shots. The Maple Leafs remained without captain John Tavares, who’s expected to miss at least two weeks with a concussion and knee injury suffered during a scary collision in Game 1.
In other playoff action:
— Nikolaj Ehlers scored his second goal of the game at 9:13 in overtime, completing a massive rally for the Winnipeg Jets who erased a three-goal deficit in the third period to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 and take a 3-0 lead in their opening-round playoff series. Mathieu Perreault, Blake Wheeler and Josh Morrissey each scored for Winnipeg in a stretch of 3:03 of the third to tie it and send it to overtime. The Jets can sweep the series Monday night with Game 4 in Edmonton. Leon Draisaitl had two goals and an assist for Edmonton, Zack Kassian and Jujhar Khaira also scored and Connor McDavid had three assists.
— The Florida Panthers entrusted their season to a rookie goalie making his playoff debut. Spencer Knight delivered. The 20-year-old Knight stopped 36 shots, Mackenzie Weegar had a goal and an assist, and the Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 in Game 5 of their Central Division playoff series. The Lightning still lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 and host Game 6 on Wednesday night.
— Josh Bailey scored 51 seconds into the second overtime to lift the New York Islanders to a 3-2 victory over Pittsburgh in Game 5 of their first-round series. Bailey took advantage of a giveaway by Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry to fire the puck into the empty net as New York grabbed a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Anthony Beauvillier and Jordan Eberle also scored for New York. Rookie goaltender Ilya Sorokin stopped 48 shots for the Islanders. Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust scored for Pittsburgh but the Penguins are in danger of a third straight early playoff exit.
