Leafs Win the Showdown in Motown

 

Photo Courtesy of Pension Plan Puppets

 

Before I talk about this game I want to pass along my condolences to the family of Ralph Mellanby, for those who aren’t aware he was the producer for Hockey Night in Canada and helped turn that program into the National treasure it is. He brought in such segments like Peter Puck in the 70’s and that segment was a cartoon that would help explain the rules of hockey to kids watching at home. Ralph also brought Don Cherry on board for his long running Coaches Corner segment.

 Well, this was a wild one. The Leafs were coming of a shootout victory the other night against Anaheim and last night they traveled to Detroit for a meeting with the Red Wings who Friday night picked up a win against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Alex Nedeljkovic would get the start in goal for Detroit and for the visiting Leafs it would be Petr Mrazek.

This game didn’t really start the way the Leafs had planned because right from the opening draw the Red Wings were the better team and less then two minutes into the game Detroit would open the scoring. The Leafs would lose the puck in the Wings zone and on the counterattack, Vladislav Namestnikov would send a pass to Dylan Larkin who would beat TJ Brodie and send a backhand shot passed Mrazek for the early 1-0 lead. Toronto would have to try and come from behind in this one, but it would be Detroit who continue to apply pressure as they would outshoot the Leafs heavily in this first period but thankfully for the Leafs Mrazek was able to keep the deficit at one thanks to some big saves. The Leafs would have a few chances of their own as midway through the first Toronto would have a three on one with Matthews, Rielly, and Bunting but would fall victim to too many passes and wouldn’t even manage a shot it what would have been a sure goal as Nedeljkovic was swimming in the crease with his back to the play. In the final five minutes of the period Toronto would finally find their footing in this game and begin to apply pressure and with three and a half minutes left in the opening period Toronto would find their way onto the board as after receiving a lead pass from Jason Spezza Morgan Rielly would throw the puck on net which is never a bad thing because it would deflect off the shin of Pierre Engvall and into the net for Pierre’s 6^th goal of the season. It’s worth noting that Spezza’s secondary assist is his first point in the last nine games, and he is now seventeen points away from 1000. Toronto with the game now tied at ones Toronto would finish the period much better than they started it as the first intermission arrived.

 

The wheels would fall off for the Leafs in the second period, just like the first period Detroit would score early with both goals coming within the first 90 seconds as Petr Mrazek would over commit on a Wings shot and Namestnikov would chip the puck passed Mrazek giving the Red Wings the 2-1 advantage. The Leafs misery would continue as just 50 seconds later Tyler Bertuzzi would double Detroit’s lead and he would come in off the wing and fire a laser of a shot beating Mrazek on the glove side for his 21^st goal of the season. With Toronto having a rough time against Detroit trailing 3-1 which had to be frustrating for Leaf fans because the Maple Leafs should have been the fresh team seeing as they weren’t on a back-to-back situation but with twelve minutes played Toronto would pull to within a goal as Michael Bunting would find the back of the net. With the Leafs cycling the puck in the offensive zone David Kampf would work the puck back to the point to Justin Holl whose point shot would be deflected by Bunting for his 10^th goal of the season and in his first game back from Covid protocol Justin Holl would collect an assist and Detroit’s lead would be cut to one making the score 3-2.  With things seemingly starting to turn in favour of the Leafs late in the period they would wind up being called for too many men on the ice. With Tavares serving the minor the Wings would get to work on the man advantage. The play would be in the Leafs end and Toronto’s penalty killers would double team Lucas Raymond hoping to turn the puck over and kill off some valuable time. Robby Fabbri would come over in support of Raymond winning the puck and sending it over to Dylan Larkin who was left all alone and his wrist shot would beat Mrazek for his second of the game and thanks to the powerplay tally Detroit’s lead was once again doubled 4-2 which would wind up being the score after forty minutes of play.

The final period would start with the Leafs trailing by two and hoping to find their way back into this contest. Things would start a little rough for the Leafs once again as Detroit would spend good amounts of time keeping the Leafs in defend mode, but Mrazek would do his job and keep his team in the game. Halfway through the final frame the Leafs would begin to apply some pressure and work their way back into this period. Their work would pay off as Auston Matthews would send a shot towards goal and Michael Bunting would redirect the puck into the net for his second on the night and 11^th of the season setting a new career high in the process. With the Leafs once again trailing by a goal with half the game remaining there would be plenty of time for Toronto to search for a tying goal. After Bunting’s second marker the Leafs seemed to play with the familiar amount of energy and jump that we fans were used to seeing them have and the Red Wings didn’t seem to be prepared for the surge that Toronto was about to bring. The Leafs from then on would play with all kinds of determination and just two minutes later Toronto would manage to tie the game. This goal would start by some great work by Auston Matthews winning a battle for the puck along the boards. Next Mitch Marner would provide support and gather the puck before heading to the net, joining him would be Bunting who knows if you go to the net usually good things happen Marner would then slide the puck over to Bunting who would send the puck into the net tying this game at fours. After this goal Detroit seemed to be in shock and Toronto would pounce on the opportunity presented to them. Late in the third period with Detroit on their heels the Leafs would have possession of the puck down low in the Red Wings zone Alex Kerfoot would send the puck to John Tavares who would fire a centering pass to Rasmus Sandin who would come in off the point and Sandin would score his first goal of the season giving the Leafs their first lead of the night as Detroit would trail 5-4. With the Leafs now leading the Wings would pull their goalie to play with an extra attacker and they would come to within inches of tying the game at 5 as Detroit would hit the crossbar. Now on the broadcast they believed play was stopped because the point shot was in fact a goal but as I mentioned it hit the cross bar and stayed out the reason for the stoppage was Detroit suffered a minor for hooking served by Robby Fabbri. The Leafs would rub salt in the wound of the Red Wings as Marner would send the puck into the empty cage on the powerplay extending his goal streak to five games with his 11^th goal of the season. The Leafs weren’t done there as one minute later John Tavares would join in on the scoring fun by scoring an empty netter of his own for his 17^th goal of the season.

 

The Leafs although they didn’t play all that well for the most part would find a way and win this game by a score of 7-4 and the fact that Toronto managed to come back and win this game to me shows the signs of a team that could do something when it matters. We hear constantly good teams are ones that find ways to win even when they don’t have their best effort and tonight was a prime example of that because Toronto for forty minutes didn’t play their best game and its fair to say the better team lost last night. All though it wasn’t pretty I am sure Sheldon Keefe will be happy his Leafs leave the Motor City with two points but there is no doubt there are things he would like to see cleaned up before their next game. Toronto will be in action again Monday night when they close out the month of January as the New Jersey Devils who have lost the last four games come to the Scotiabank Arena.

 

Thanks as always for reading.