The 59-year-old Aurora native gathered friends and work colleagues to travel to Tampa for Game 4 and went viral when celebrating hard after Torontos' come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win.
The 59-year-old Aurora native gathered friends and work colleagues to travel to Tampa for Game 4 and went viral when celebrating hard after Torontos' come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win.
Billy Kapogiannis was in attendance for the Toronto Maple Leafs' embarrassing 7-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 at Scotiabank Arena last week. But he didn't give up hope. While working as a waiter at The Avenue, he was greeted by regular customers Chris and Mary as Game 2 had just concluded.
That's when Kapogiannis got the itch to head down to Tampa for a game.
"I'm off Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so I said to them, 'Why don't we head down to Florida, whip down for a couple of days, get to the beach and get home?'" Kapogiannis told The Hockey News in a telephone interview. "Bing. Bang. Boom. One thing led to another and we're on our way with tickets in hand."
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Along with Sam, his business partner at VTL Indoor Golf & Academy in Vaughan, they all got seats about five rows up the lower level between the Maple Leafs and Lightning bench.
The 59-year-old is a lifelong Maple Leafs fan and his passion for the club is evident just in the way he tells the story of witnessing the Game 4 Maple Leafs' 5-4 comeback victory in overtime.
"When it was 4-1, I had A LOT of Lightning fans chirping me," he recalled. "I escaped to the bathroom in the third period and when I stepped out into the hallway I saw (Auston) Matthews score (his first goal)," he said.
Kapogiannis immediately rushed back to his section and when he was prevented from getting to his seats due to a long stretch of continuous play without a whistle. "The Leafs are on, get out of my way," he joked.
He got to his seat just in time to see Matthews score his second goal to cut it to 4-3.
"Sh*t, what is going on here, I'm losing my mind," Kapogiannis exclaimed.
When the Maple Leafs drew a penalty early in overtime, Kapogiannis looked over to his colleague Sam.
"We're going to score," he foretold.
When Alex Kerfoot scored the winner shortly afterwards, Kapogiannis lost it.
"I went, YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH, YEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH," Kapogiannis said, re-created the volume of the cheers from the pool of his hotel, to a point he was concerned (jokingly) that other patrons were going to throw him off a nearby bridge.
Kapogiannis was aware of the camera filming him screaming into the phone to his cousin Bill, who called him at the exact same time.
"Where I was sitting the camera guy kept filming and I kept screaming and just kept screaming louder and louder until I had no breath left."
When Kapogiannis collected himself and left the arena, his phone began to explode with multiple texts.
"I went to Sam and said why won't people leave me alone?"
He then received a call from his nephew in Vegas who alerted him that a video of him had been spreading.
"He tells me I'm all over the place and I'm like 'What are you talking about?'"
The video of Kapogiannis immediately resonated with fellow Leafs fans who were quick to point out that they felt the same way after Toronto's dramatic victory. The clip was shown on Hockey Night in Canada as panel members got a kick out the reaction.
It was a game won in a way the Maple Leafs don't usually win, and for Kapogiannis, it's been a long time since he felt that way after any Leafs postseason success.
"I was too young to remember the last time we won a cup," he said. "I know we should have won it in '93."
The Maple Leafs lead the Lightning in their best-of-seven series 3-1 with a chance to move onto the second round for the first time since 2004. Game 5 is Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.
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