The Maple Leafs found themselves back on the wrong side of the win-loss column Thursday night. The Columbus Blue Jackets came to town and left with a victory, defeating Toronto 3-2 in overtime.
Nobleton native Adam Fantilli led the Blue Jackets’ attack, scoring twice; his second goal was the game-winner. But the injury-riddled Leafs did put up a strong fight, coming back from a two-goal deficit to salvage a point.
Neither team sent a puck past the goal line in the first period. Columbus opened the scoring at the 3:17 mark of the second. Fantilli fired a missile that brushed off Dmitri Voronkov to give the Blue Jackets the 1-0 lead. Voronkov was parked all alone in front of Joseph Woll, giving the goaltender no shot at a save.
At the 12:01 point of the second, Fantilli added to the lead with his seventh of the year. Voronkov returned the earlier favour by assisting on the goal, another rocket-wrist shot from just inside the circle.
Queue the Leafs’ comeback.
Toronto got on the board just over two minutes later. Their goal came from an unlikely contributor as defencemen Dakota Mermis scored his first of the season, a long fling shot that made its way through traffic and behind Blue Jackets’ goalie, Jet Greaves.
A more usual suspect, John Tavares, tied the game, 3:33 into the third. The veteran who’s been carrying the team on his back scored his 12th of the season, off a give-and-go from Easton Cowan.
Nothing was decided in regulation. So they played some more, and with 39 seconds remaining in overtime, Fantilli broke toward the net and lifted the puck over a diving Woll for the heartbreaker.
Next up: The Leafs battle the Canadiens Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
