John Tavares scored 4:36 into overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs won their first Stanley Cup playoff series since 2004 with a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference First Round series at Amalie Arena.

Toronto won all three games in Tampa Bay in overtime and will face the winner of the series between Florida and Boston, who will play Game 7 on Sunday evening.

"It's been a long time coming, a long time coming for a lot of players in this room, long time coming for myself, long time coming for Leafs Nation. ... It's a big deal," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said.

"You see that puck find its way in the net and it's just an incredible moment. Playoff hockey is incredible. This whole night was incredible."

Auston Matthews had Toronto's other goal and Ilya Samsonov made 31 saves.

"I'm so excited, this is a big deal for us", Samsonov said. "It was a good battle. Everybody did a great job. ...It doesn't matter how you win, in overtime or whatever, just get four wins."

Steven Stamkos scored for Tampa Bay while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 shots.

The Lightning were the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions having won 11 of their last 12 playoff series, their lone loss in last year's Stanley Cup Final to Colorado.

"This team hasn't lost a series in the Eastern Conference since 2019. It's 2023", said Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper. "We're not used to this feeling. I don't know, I can't think of the word. It just doesn't feel good."

Tampa Bay has lost five consecutive games at home in the postseason and is 1-10 in their last 11 overtime playoff games.

"At some point, you're not going to get the break, that's just the way it is", Cooper said. "And for [Toronto], that has struggled in the playoffs, at some point they were going to get a break. It just [stinks] that it was in a series against us."

Tavares winner sends Leafs into second round, Lightning to early exit

Matthews put Toronto on top 1-0 with 6:13 left in the second period, taking a pass from TJ Brodie and one-timing the puck past Vasilevskiy from the right faceoff circle.

"It feels good. Obviously, we worked for this all year long. It wasn't an easy win any terms", said Maple Leafs center Mitch Marner. "It's a special moment, but we can't be satisfied.

"There's a lot more ahead and we've got to be ready for it."

Stamkos tied the game 4:11 into the third period as he put in the rebound of a shot from the point by Darren Raddysh.

"There's no shame in the effort we put in, maybe the execution at times wasn't great", Stamkos said. "No one should go home feeling like we didn't leave it on the ice.

"I thought we played better 5-on-5 hockey than we did last year. Maybe we got some bounces last year. That's a good hockey team over there. It [stinks] when it doesn't go your way."

In overtime, Tavares skated out from behind the net, sent a spinner of a shot on net and watched as it deflected in off the skate of Raddysh.

"I got the puck up high and interchanged with [Marner], and I thought most of the coverage would go to him", Tavares said. "But they read it well and I just kept the puck in.

"With the space that I had and knowing [Morgan Rielly] went to the net, I said let's throw it there and see what happens."