Columnist image

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO – With time winding down in the second period on Friday, the Maple Leafs had nothing to show for in one of their best efforts of the season but a 1-0 deficit to the San Jose Sharks. So there was nothing for Jake Muzzin to lose by pinching down low in the Sharks’ end, and scoring the equalizer with 2.7 seconds left in the frame to spark Toronto to an emphatic 4-1 win over San Jose.

“I figured, why not? There's five seconds left,” Muzzin said of driving the Sharks’ net late in the period.

“Even if they get the puck, it'd be tough to get down the ice and score or have a chance anyway so I just kind of went there and [Jason] Spezza threw it there. Just came to me and I hit it in. I think it was big goal for the team to get us going.”

Morgan Rielly tallied the game-winner for Toronto late in the third, off a brilliant set-up by William Nylander. Ilya Mikheyev and Auston Matthews added two more goals in the game’s final minute to ice the victory, halting the Leafs’ two-game losing skid.

“We just stayed with it, stayed with it, stayed with them,” said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. “We didn't give up much tonight which was positive and stayed the course, and got the break there at the end of the [second] period and then just stayed patient in the third too. I thought it was a good lesson for us tonight and I thought our guys did a good job.”

While the Leafs did well to patch up a lot of holes in their defensive game and mostly stayed out of the penalty box, they still gave up the first goal of the game for the ninth time in 12 outings, this time on a Kevin Lebanc tip of Brent Burns’ point shot midway through the first period.

But playing from behind again was nothing compared to the concern that arose when Matthews took a hard, high hit from Brenden Dillon in the second that forced him out of the game and into concussion protocol. The 22-year-old said he was shaken up by the collision, but ultimately got the all-clear to return for the third period.

“He caught me up high, caught me in the jaw,” Matthews said. “It happens; he was stepping up trying to make a trying to make a play. Shaken up a little bit, but I feel fine.”

Toronto’s top centre suffered the first concussion of his career just last season , but said he wasn’t really worried that the Dillon hit had caused another. There was no penalty called on the play, but Matthews did think at the time it could have been tagged as one.

“I felt like it was a hit to the head,” he said. “I saw the replay, kind of looked that way, but it's a fast game, refs are trying to make the best judgment. But I know what I felt. It was all good though, picked up two points, that's all that matters.”

Even though he missed a portion of the second period, Matthews still paced all skaters with six shots goal, a product in part of Toronto’s power play chances. The Leafs finished 0-for-5 with the extra man against the NHL’s top penalty kill, but just drawing infractions helped Toronto to limit San Jose to a season-low 17 shots on net.

That was just one aspect of a vastly improved all-around effort by Toronto, starting with play in its own end.

“We had a lot of power plays so that kills a lot of momentum for them,” Muzzin said. “But we were better in the neutral zone, we played in their zone a little bit more. And a lot of times they're just flicking pucks out because they're a little bit tired. We knew we had to jump on them and continue that for 60 minutes. We did a good job tonight.”

The question now is whether the Leafs can repeat the feat again in quick succession. While they were able to capitalize in part on a San Jose team playing the second half of a back-to-back on Friday, it will be Toronto suiting up for the second time in two nights come Saturday in Montreal. The Leafs have yet to win a back-to-back set this season, often falling flat in their second outing, but momentum is firmly in their grasp after a grinding come-from-behind win.

“I thought that we were motivated [tonight],” Rielly said. “We wanted to come out and have a good effort. I think when you look back at our past couple games, there's room for improvement, and we’ve been pretty open about that. I thought the guys showed up and played well. It’s important that we focus on that moving forward we try to do it again.”