Eight seconds of good hockey proved enough as the Leafs surged past Chicago late to salvage a much-needed victory against the Blackhawks 3-2 Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
After suffering an embarrassing loss to the Edmonton Oilers Saturday, a defeat that not only riled up the fan base but had coaches and players questioning the team’s game management and overall performance, Toronto was desperate for a bounce-back win against the Bedardless Blackhawks.
But any signs of urgency were disguised by a rather flat first period. The Maple Leafs controlled the puck for a good portion of the first 20 minutes, but did little with it in terms of creating scoring chances. In contrast, the Blackhawks made the most of their opportunities.
Chicago went up 1-0 on Wyatt Kaiser’s 3rd of the season. Blackhawks’ centre Dominic Toninato won a draw back to Kaiser, who skated in, used Toninato as a screen, then shot the puck past Joseph Woll for the goal at the 10:21 mark.
It appeared that Chicago had gone up 2-0, but a goal by Jason Dickinson was disallowed as it was ruled that he pushed the pad of Joseph Woll, forcing the puck into the net.
Dickinson did get on the board a couple of minutes later, however, finishing off an Ilya Mikheyev pass on a two-on-one shorthanded break at 15:48 of the first.
The Blackhawks maintained their 2-0 lead all the way into the middle of the third. Oliver Ekman-Larson finally broke through for the Maple Leafs. The defenceman floated a knuckleball that managed its way past Spencer Knight to make the score 2-1.
Then, with just over three minutes left in the game, Toronto struck again. Auston Matthews scored his 14th of the season on the power-play to make it 2-2. Mikeyhev thought he was skating the puck to safety, but Willy Nylander poked it away from him right to the waiting stick of Matthews, who buried it past Knight.
Off the ensuing face-off, Troy Stecher fired the puck from centre ice toward the Chicago net. Knight tried to direct the puck out of harm’s way, but instead left a rebound for a hustling Dakota Joshua, who flipped the puck over the goaltender’s shoulder for the game-winner.
Next up: Toronto travels to Washington to take on the Capitals Thursday night.
