Sheldon Keefe's post-game comments about the Leafs' OT win make him sound like a proud father
Last night was a nail-biter of a Game 3 for Leaf fans, as the Leafs coughed up two separate one-goal leads in what looked like Deja vu of years past. However, the Leafs found a way to not only tie the game late, but win it in overtime to take a 2-1 series lead.
Sheldon Keefe has seen this team, on a number of occasions in previous years, lose games of this nature. Following last night's win, Keefe touched on that during his post-game media availability, pointing to the undeniable growth of this group and crediting them with sticking with it and not buckling under the relentless pressure that the Bolts had them under all night.
"You look over the years, we've lost (these kinds) of games. We pulled it out, because we stayed with it. We certainly bent, we didn't break. Credit to our guys, Tampa gave us everything they had," said Leafs' head coach Sheldon Keefe. Those are the games the Leafs would come up short in, especially when you consider that Andrei Vasilevskiy was 21-2 in games following a loss in the playoffs the past 3 seasons.
The Leafs found ways to get to the front of the net, win battles on the boards and be physical without taking themselves out of plays. All of the additions Kyle Dubas made up to the trade deadline have been paying dividends for the Leafs so far and have given the team the ability to counter Tampa's "toughness". The Leafs will look to take a commanding lead in the series Monday night in game 4.
