Mitch Marner needed exactly one shift to chart the Toronto Maple Leafs’ course in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

First, it was a deft pass interception at the Bolts’ blueline to hold the zone. He was perched like a predatory animal, waiting to strike or, as he put it, “I was just trying to read eyes, read the play, see what’s open and see what I can pick off.”

In the transition, he drew a hook from Tampa’s Ian Cole, sending Toronto to the power play at the 40-second mark. Marner needed seven seconds of power-play time to rip a seeing-eye slapper past goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and give the Leafs a 1-0 lead.

The Lightning took over Game 1 at the 1:18 mark on Tuesday. Marner and the Leafs only needed 0:47 to seize Game 2 on Thursday. They got the Scotiabank Arena crowd – rowdy in April if primed in just the right away – titillated from the start. And so began a rip-roaring night for the Leafs that was, as Lightning coach Jon Cooper put it, the mirror image of Game 1. The Leafs were tentative from the start on Tuesday, exiting the ice to a chorus of boos after each period, and sat goaltender Ilya Samsonov after six goals in two periods. They were the aggressors all night on Thursday, taking proper advantage of a Lightning lineup missing two of its top three defensemen in the towering Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak. And it was the Leafs putting six goals past Vasilevskiy in two periods this time.