The Leafs erased three one-goal deficits during regulation, but Joshua Mahura scored his first goal in 134 games to lead the Kraken past Toronto 4-3 in overtime at the Scotiabank Arena Saturday night.
Toronto was battling uphill from the start, giving up a power-play goal to Shane Wright at 7:29 into the first period. The Kraken centremen put home a rebound shot past Anthony Stolarz, who had made the initial save on a point-blank chance by Jaden Schwartz.
Despite the slow start and a shotless drought that lasted over eight minutes, the Leafs managed to tie the game before the period’s end. With 5:04 left, Morgan Reilly joined the rush, took a backhand pass from Auston Matthews, and snapped home his second of the year, beating Seattle goalie Joey Daccord blocker side to make it 1-1.
Jani Nyman broke the tie late in the second period off a nice feed from Mason Marchment. Less than two minutes later, John Tavares shot a rocket past Daccord to re-tie the game 2-2 at 16:01.
A minute 43 later, Seattle defenceman Vince Dunn put the Kraken back ahead, firing a shot through a crowd, including a falling Jaden Schwartz, who had landed on Stolarz as the puck was sliding through. The Leafs did not challenge the goal because their defenceman Brandon Carlo was guilty of pushing Schwartz backwards.
Regardless, the collision upset Stolarz, and when Marchment came bulldozing in just before the second period horn, the Toronto net-minder had had enough, tossing the net to the side to deliver a couple of blocker shots to the Kraken forward’s head.Â
Marchment received the only penalty for goaltender interference, and when play resumed in the third period, Tavares scored his second of the game, notching his 500th point as a Maple Leaf on a power-play rebound goal assisted by Willy Nylander at 1:21.
That was all the scoring in the third, and the teams went to overtime tied 3-3.
Both sides had several good chances in the extra frame, but in the end it was the Seattle defencemen, Mahura off a given and go from Jordan Eberle who shook free and beat Stolarz for the game winner.
The loss dropped the Leafs to 3-2-1 on the season. Next up is a Tuesday night home game against the New Jersey Devils.
