NHL Highlights | Lightning vs. Maple Leafs – December 8, 2025

NHL Highlights | Lightning vs. Maple Leafs – December 8, 2025

John Tvaris and Tampa Bay’s Yanni Gore, the two-time Cup winner, will oppose each other in the center ice draw. Sit back and enjoy Prime Monday Night Hockey tonight from the 416. Lays it out to center. Love down by a great story to Steu. He’ll carry in deep in the zone. A little backhander off the pad of Hildabby. with Scott Law. He brings great elements to the locker room and one is kind of a carefree attitude and boy the reaction after that goal was priceless. Short-handed to boot homeberg a chance for Jurgensson but it’s 67. You watch his left pad come out. I mean you don’t need to stretch out too far. A nice job by him. No surprise. Saw Dakota Mermis is on the third pairing with Simone Ben replacing Philip Meyers. Kelly Yarns in the lineup tonight for Trek Barubi on the doorstep. Stopped by Johansson Gensel on the way back. Has it for Tampa Bay through the center ice zone. JJ Moser kicked along easily by Hildabby. Gensel pinned by McKay. Flung all the way back and out of the reach of Lillberg and back out to center ice. Ail Lillberg for Braden Point. He got off to a slow start like his team early. Pencil fought off a couple of times by Hildabby and a goal saving play by Troy Ster in the blue paint. And then it was a scramble and this is a big key of getting pucks to the net in any game. And right there you can see he can’t reach it. Now it’s a scramble. He actually gets bumped there. But Ster calmly clears that puck. And how about point on the entry one not really taking risk protecting it. Then he kicked that out. who was hip jamming at the doorstep. Two undersized guys that battle as hard as you can. Sketcher and point. He’ll play it along the boards by Matthews. Randers from the point tip and Hild to be set. No off the stick of Cooerov. Hegel turned out again by Dennis Hilde. Hoser takes over. Hegel up top. One-time Cooerov off the stick of Matthews. Held in. Lightning go to work again. Hegel off a stick. Get the flex to Celli with Hill to be fishing for him. Claw gets it back up top for Benois. Simone Benois just by Steven Lorent. Benois penalty it up. Caught by Johansson. 83 Tampa Bay. And that shot from Morgan Riley. Easily handled by Johansson. He’ll get it back. He’ll play it off a body off Radish. And Tampa Bay will break it out through the logo. It’s Yanni Gourd. He’ll step in, snap one off, and it’s handled by Hildabby. I think the whole team appreciates his experience, but got a really good mix in the locker room, veterans and rookies. Bye deep in his get it back from Doy Wah off a stick. Eastston Collins swings it for Oliver Ecman Larson looking for a tip. It’s caught and frozen now by a diving Johansson. offensive ability throughout his career, but he’s he really seems to be within himself here as this is all in one motion off the onehanded pickup and then just fired in there trying to get a rebound or a bounce. That’s great camera work, too. I mean, that puck’s rolling and spitting at a high rate. Eman Larson over the line now. Moved along. Doi sings a pass cross ice. Reset by Cowan. Ecman Larson. Doy again to the goal mouth in front. It kicks around. It’s frozen by Johansson. West Coast. It’s a goalmouth scramble for anybody who wants it. And the last line comes up with it right there. [Music] One by Matthews. Ecman Larson seen all the way by Johansson. No further play. Steven Lorent directs one along the boards for a line change. Tampa Bay. Jake Kensel defended. Good gap control by Benois. The jailbreak. Tavaris got past Allen. All in front of ricochets to Riley. He’s in and he scores. Morgan Riley finishes off a beautiful play. 334 left in period one. Terrell up and running. Little line change going on to your left. And here comes Tampa. They think they’re going to make a break. But Ben with an excellent stick to the heads up next play. And you can see the speed here. And Cowan’s checking his options. As he looks to the middle, he gets a bounce. And it took two second efforts on every one of those plays for that puck to end up in the back of the net before. Well, how about Riley, too, right? He’s not even an option in the play. His forwards didn’t even see him. He was the late guy coming in, but he made sure he was ahead of the guy supposed to check him. Did a good job of settling things down, allowing Toronto to get the first goal here. We kick off the second period of long changes. Prime Monday Night Hockey presented by Uber Eatats. Moser will hunt it down in the neutral zone. He’s hassled by Ny. It creates a chance for Matthews. A drag, a shot turned out by Johansson. How about that backhand tow drag, Jody? Just a little quick, hey, how are you? Gets one on and made it along the wall. Borkstrand out. Yarn wide of Johansson. Steven Lorent fought off. A big rebound. No, mercy. What a stop by Johansson. There it is. Right to him in the middle of the ice off the goender. And look at that glove of Johansson. He found it. Oh, Mercy is right. I mean, you got all that time in the world that probably better just get it. Has to fumbles it. Broken up by Colin. Lead feed. Knander to pull up. Tvaris off the goal post. It wouldn’t go. Tvaris, here it comes. Blocked in front. Back out to center. Mio Lillberg. Gonzalez with Borkstrand. He’ll drag it to himself. Go. Stopped and fought off by Hildabby. Dolby flings it wide. McCabe down low. A power move. Matthews. Stopped. Frozen by Johansson. The Leaf captain goes to work hiding and reappearing for a ref. It’s denied by Johansson. Hermis almost gave it away. The Leafs jump on it. It’s McMahon. Bobby McMahon storms in. A backhander stopped and frozen by Johansson. They know their role to a T. And here’s McMahon. He has a really long stick. And there he’s got some good speed. Just trying to Yeah, we’ll see. Jody, it’s at the tail end here of a power play. Cucharov. Puck’s going to go through him and got about a million sticks in his stick rack at all times. He just came over. Got a new tool. Maybe that’s going to open this thing up. Cucharov holding on to it. Take it in for the goal line out in front point. Stopped again. No rebound allowed by Hildy. Checked on the play by Bjorkstrand. Finley. He’s taken down in a hard way by Benois. Oh, that was a that was not that was not a good hit behind the play. That’s why Mervvis is down. And I don’t think Gonalves is not a dirty player, but that was a dirty hit. Is he stuck his leg out at last second? Things might get ugly here. It’s going to boil over. Here we go. Here we go. Croer and Dakota Joshua in the center ring. [Applause] Joshua bounds away. Good job by Joshua there. Croer who stepped up. It was Gonzalez into He didn’t even flinch though. Yeah, but he took it right to the jaw. He He got the man right in the jaw with that cross check. Tampa Bay right in a chance turned out by Hill to be an excellent bit by Senus Gurgensson and McMahon replied with that high stick. Nice converged down by Gore. Doy Matthews out and a piece of that one. Matthews skate to sticky and almost the same thing for Stetcher who slams it out. Twoon one Matthews with N. The shot shielded by Ohans working their line chase now as the Maple Leafs try to Hde can’t hold it up. Hegel sends it around for Garov. One-time Radish the P. A scramble and it’s frozen by Hyde gets set. Radish is at the top. It’s a one-time shot that you can see just laid on through traffic and might have deflected. Oh, it’s a knuckle block. Oh, and the pad stack coming in from Ster after too. Heel was right there. 15 seconds left. Radish chipped in the zone by Point. Handled by Hilde. Played along the boards. Six seconds left. They grind for it. off the pit balls free. Goes all the way down and puts the balls on. Great work along the boards. Austin Matthews makes it two nothing. A minute and Hildy puts it on the boards. Look at the support here. And Matthews just wants to get the puck out. And with 6 seconds left on the clock, he’s on the board. Yeah, in the end they walk out with practically a one- nothing win. What a team effort with a great goalending performance. But that’s the best I’ve seen Toronto taking care of their own ending this season at least. It’s a step in the right direction continued for them. [Music]

Morgan Rielly’s fifth of the season opened the scoring in the first period and would stand as the game-winning goal while Dennis Hildeby made 29 saves for the shutout as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0.

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00:00:00 – 1st Regulation Period
00:04:51 – 2nd Regulation Period
00:06:42 – 3rd Regulation Period