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Mixed results over the years, with some highs and some lows.
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There is nothing in professional sports like a Game 7.
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All of the pressure. All of the stress. All of the drama. All of the excitement. And for fans of Toronto sports teams, they’ve often had all of the heartbreak as well, though that’s not always the case.
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With a remarkable third Game 7 of 2025 now reality for Saturday, this one between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers, here’s a look at how Toronto’s teams have done in winner-take-all seventh games since 1985:
2025:
This will be the second time in these playoffs the Blue Jays went to a seventh game. In the American League Championship Series the team memorably fell behind two games to none and looked dead in the water, only to win two straight on the road. Toronto then rallied from a 3-2 deficit to tie up the series, setting up an all-time final game. George Springer hit one of the biggest home runs in franchise history in that one to lead the Jays to a comeback victory and a first trip to the World Series since 1992.
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Also this year, Leafs fans suffered through a roller coaster of a series against defending champion Florida.
Despite jumping out to a 2-0 advantage and leading in Game 3, the Leafs fell in overtime, got crushed the next two games and then shut out the Panthers in Game 6.
Sounds good, right? Sure, but Game 7 was as one-sided as we’ve seen in Toronto sports history. The Panthers were on a different level and won 6-1.
2020:
The defending champions were slowed by the Covid layoff, but still excelled in the NBA’s bubble and swept away Brooklyn before erasing 2-0 and 3-1 Boston leads before eventually falling to the Celtics in seven.
2019:
Games for all the marbles don’t get much better than this one. The Philadelphia 76ers fought the Raptors to a standstill through six games before taking Game 7 right down to the wire.
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Kawhi Leonard then hit the biggest shot in franchise history, a four-bouncer off the rim at the buzzer and the Raptors would ride that wave all the way to the NBA title.
2018
Maple Leafs vs. Bruins, 2018
What a rollercoaster ride this series was. The Leafs got outscored 12-4 in Boston in the first two games, took Game 3, then fell behind 3-1 to the Bruins only to take the next two games to force Game 7. If that wasn’t enough, who can forget Toronto took a one-goal lead into the third period only to get tattooed by three Bruins goals and then a Marchand empty-netter to be sent packing by Boston yet again.
2016:
As the We the North Raptors continued to rise, so did expectations. The team delivered, getting by Indiana in seven games before destroying Miami in a Game 7 beatdown to reach the conference final for the first time ever.
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2014
The Raptors energized the city by snapping a long playoff drought, even though they’d been expected to tank entering the season.
Winning the Atlantic Division gave Toronto home-court advantage for Game 7 after they’d dropped the sixth game in Brooklyn against an experienced Nets team.
The former Air Canada Centre was louder than ever before in this one, and it all game down to a Kyle Lowry driving layup, which was blocked by future Hall of Famer Paul Pierce. The Raptors, and the media who covered the team, had their bags packed for Miami, thinking LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were up next.
2013:
Another gut punch for fans. The Maple Leafs somehow came back from a 3-1 series deficit against an elite Boston Bruins club to force a seventh game, only to blow a 4-1 third-period lead. Yikes. They then lost in overtime.
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2004:
Ottawa had momentum, after winning Game 6 in double overtime, but the Maple Leafs would not be denied in the clincher and were never threatened.
2003:
In a truly wild series that featured triple overtime, double overtime and a single overtime over the first six games, Game 7 felt like a coin flip. It was not. The Philadelphia Flyers scored early and often and won 6-1.
2002:
The Senators fell yet again to Toronto, getting shut out 3-0 in Game 7 by Curtis Joseph in Round 2.
Toronto had advanced by beating the New York Islanders 4-2 in Game 7.
2001:
Toronto had two swings at knocking out a better New Jersey team, but lost Game 6 at home and then could barely generate any offence in a boring 5-1 loss.
In basketball that year, Vince Carter was the most popular player in the NBA at the turn of the century, a high-flying, shot-making phenom who had finally lifted the Toronto Raptors into relevance.
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And he had a chance to get them to the Eastern Conference final when he headed to the corner in Philadelphia, up-faked to get a defender in the air, and let a three-pointer fly as the clock ticked down. It clanked off the rim, the Raptors lost and would not be back on that stage for a long time.
1994:
Somehow a San Jose Sharks team that finished below .500 in the regular season made it to the second round of the playoffs. The plucky Sharks even took series leads against the Leafs of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, and fired a shot off the goalpost in overtime of Game 6 before the Leafs won. Wendel Clark’s monster Game 7 sent the Leafs into the conference final for a second year in a row.
1993:
The Great One would not be denied and ended a season for the ages for the Maple Leafs.
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A laughingstock for years, the Leafs had broken through, shocking top-seeded Detroit and then St. Louis in a pair of seven-game classics, and had two chances to put away Wayne Gretzky’s Los Angeles Kings. Alas, Gretzky got away with a high stick in Game 6 and then scored the overtime winner before turning it up another notch with a hat trick in Game 7, ending the Leafs’ season.
1987:
Ahead 2-0 and 3-1 in a series against Detroit after an overtime win in Game 4, the Maple Leafs then got shut out in Detroit, lost at home and got shut out again in Game 7 in an epic collapse.
1986:
Wendel Clark’s rookie season ended in a memorable 2-1 Game 7 defeat in St. Louis.
1985:
The first playoff appearance in Blue Jays history ended in despair.
Toronto had taken 2-0 and 3-1 leads in the series against the Kansas City Royals, before dropping two straight. Still, the finale was at home and things looked OK through five innings. But Dave Stieb faltered in the bottom of the sixth, the Royals scored four runs and a comeback wasn’t to be.
OVERALL RECORD SINCE 1985 IN GAME 7s:
Blue Jays 1-1
Raptors 3-3
Maple Leafs 5-7
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