The Leafs took their show on the road and ran into a dead end, falling to the Red Wings 6-3 at Little Caesars Arena Saturday night.
Toronto hit the bumps early, giving up a couple of odd-man rushes in the opening minutes, but Anthony Stolarz, starting his second game in a row, steered away the Detroit chances.
With Stolarz holding the line, the Leafs capitalized on an offensive zone faceoff play. Steven Lorentz lost the draw, but Nicolas Roy broke up a clearing attempt, allowing Lorentz to chase down the puck and drop it to Chris Tanev. The defenceman flipped it toward the net, and after a scramble, Calle Jarnkrok tapped in his second goal in as many games to put the Leafs up 1-1 just under three minutes into the game.
Toronto added to their lead later in the period with Roy scoring his first of the year and first in a Maple Leaf uniform, redirecting a Morgan Rielly shot to the back of the net past Detroit goalie Cam Talbot at 12:39.
Toronto took a 2-0 lead into the dressing room, but an aggressive Detroit forecheck got to the Leafs in the second. Marco Kasper cashed in off an Alex DeBrincat steal and a beautiful Patrick Kane centring pass to make it 2-1 at the 8:56 mark of the period. Lukas Raymond then tied the game (2-2) six minutes later, converting a tip-in off a Dylan Larkin wrap-around feed.
With the period winding down, DeBrincat delivered a perfect cross-ice pass to a wide-open Patrick Kane for a one-timer to give the Red Wings a 3-2 lead going into the third.
Toronto fired back. Two and a half minutes into the final frame, Max Domi scored his first of the year on a rush up the ice, tying the game at 3-3. But that’s when the Leafs hit the brakes. Off a give-and-go and another great Kane set up, Lucas Raymond scored his second of the game and 100th in his career on the power-play to make it 4-3 Redwings, and they never looked back.
Simon Edvinsson and Andrew Copp added empty-netters to stretch the final to 6-3.
These two teams will square off again on Monday at 2pm, at the Scotiabank Arena.
