It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
The Maple Leafs gladly will tell you as much.
After falling into a three-goal hole in the first period on Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs scored seven unanswered goals, including five in the third period, to emerge with a 7-3 victory.
Captain Auston Matthews put an exclamation mark on the win at the Bell Centre, slamming a Mitch Marner pass behind Canadiens goalie Samuel Montembeault for the fifth Toronto goal.
Steven Lorentz, who later took his first penalty of the season, scored the sixth Leafs goal with five minutes left. David Kampf scored shorthanded into an empty net.
Earlier in the third, Oliver Ekman-Larsson beat Montembeault on a screen and William Nylander scored on a breakaway, silencing those in the crowd who weren’t clad in blue and white.
Matthews scored the first shorthanded goal of his National Hockey League career. And for the fifth time in 2024-25, the Leafs scored at least two power-play goals in one game.
Joseph Woll was stellar in a 33-save performance in the Toronto net.
The Leafs won for the sixth time this season when trailing after two periods, tying them for most in the NHL. The Canadiens were 11-2-1 in their previous 14 games.
The Leafs scored twice in the second period to add some spice entering the third.
Bobby McMann kept the puck on an odd-man rush and beat Montembeault at 9:32. McMann was using Matthew Knies’ stick, as Knies handed him his stick from the bench after McMann dropped his own. McMann motioned to the bench after the goal, recognizing Knies’ quick thinking.
Nick Robertson made a nifty play for the Leafs’ second goal, re-directing an Ekman-Larsson shot into the net at 18:46. That came with one second left on a Toronto power play.
The game marked the third time that the Leafs allowed three goals in the first period.
They lost the other two times — 6-3 to the New York Islanders on Dec. 21 in Toronto and 6-2 on the road against Columbus on Oct. 22.
Kirby Dach scored from the slot at 5:08 during a delayed Leafs penalty.
The Leafs nearly killed off a double minor to Matthews — the second four-minute penalty of his career — before Patrik Laine scored on a one-timer at 18:21.
Nine seconds later, Josh Anderson beat Woll with a backhand.
Ryan Reaves wanted to fight Arber Xhekaj in the first period, but the latter refused. In the second, Xhekaj sent Reaves crashing to the ice with an open-ice hit.