Sheldon Keefe has seen this before at Scotiabank Arena.
Only this time he couldn’t appreciate the Maple Leafs scoring their way out of self-inflicted trouble.
Two third-period goals by Auston Matthews pushed ex-coach Keefe’s return to overtime, where William Nylander won it 70 seconds in. Thursday’s 4-3 win over New Jersey ended a season-high three-game losing streak.
Matthews’s second goal, on which Mitch Marner earned his 700th career NHL point, was a snapshot under the crossbar with little room to shoot at Jacob Markstrom and 4:13 left to play. Marner set up Nylander’s dagger as well.
It was their first test without injured diesel digger John Tavares for at least the next three games, Keefe’s first time back after nine years in the Toronto orbit before a series of playoff failures caught up to him.
Craig Berube was commissioned to create a better defence, but likely wasn’t counting on stretches such as this.
The Leafs put 40-plus pucks on net and rallied from a goal down when Matthews drew a third-period tripping call and tied it on his 99th career power-play goal, a small victory for the struggling five-forward unit. But Nico Hischier’s second with the man advantage, both with defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the box, restored the lead. Minus Tavares, Toronto craved early momentum for its rejigged lines, which included the return of Max Pacioretty and Pontus Holmberg.
But the Devils had the initial opportunities and jumped on a huge coverage error. After David Kampf knocked Jack Hughes down in a defensive zone faceoff, Philippe Myers lost track of Hughes behind an aborted Leaf breakout and New Jersey’s leading scorer had all day to deke Joseph Woll.
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Max Domi, playing in Tavares’s spot between Bobby McMann and Nylander, brought some gusto and forechecking, eventually leading to a second-period goal. He retrieved a puck, beat defenceman Johnathan Kovacevic and fed Nylander for his 25th of the year, collecting his 300th NHL assist in the process.
But that tie lasted as long as the Devils’ first full power play. Hischier went upstairs on Woll through defender Conor Timmins, a rare instance of the penalty kill giving up goals in consecutive matches.
While the Leafs did have 10 first-period shots on Markstrom, their five forwards stumbled out of the gate. Marner and Nylander couldn’t relay the puck at the point and Marner was forced to take a hooking call on Hischier’s breakaway.
Matthew Knies was in alone twice in the first two periods, running out of room on the first and flat out denied by Markstrom on a breakaway backhand in the second. He was down for a few moments after that when Timo Meier steered him hard into Woll’s right post.
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