The Maple Leafs are back in first place, with secondary scoring still their big their post-break story.
On Sunday night in Chicago, it was Nick Robertson and Max Domi with some welcome contributions after neither had been able to add goals to their overall job descriptions. With a couple of goals from the shut-down defence pair of Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev, the 5-2 win over the Blackhawks nudged the Leafs a point up on Florida for top spot in the Atlantic loop with a game in hand, though the Tampa Bay Lightning remained four points back with a game in hand of its own on Toronto.
After four combined goals from Pontus Holmberg, Steven Lorentz and David Kampf in Saturday’s victory against Carolina, it was Robertson erupting on behalf of the bottom six.
When the five-forward first-unit power play came up empty in 90 seconds of work, Bobby McMann and Domi worked it to Robertson for a one-timer, his first goal in 10 games and just his second on special teams.
Less than three minutes later, former Hawk McCabe put the Leafs up 2-1, snapping one from the point as Seth Jones cut in front of his goalie, Arvid Soderblom.
More close calls followed for the Leafs, Domi off the crossbar trying to bust his own two-month goal skid and another Robertson shot that ex-Leaf TJ Brodie swept off the goal-line. Lorentz also had a clean look on a 2-on-1 thwarted by the knob of his previously broken stick lying in the way as he tried to shoot.
In the dying seconds of the middle period, Domi hustled to beat Jones to a puck in the corner to feed Robertson’s second of the night.
But it was also Domi who stumbled as Philipp Kurashev scored just eight seconds later to make it 3-2 heading into the third.
Toronto shut things down with Tanev’s goal and Holmberg’s empty-netter improving the Leafs to 25-0-0 when leading after 40 minutes.
Other than William Nylander ringing the iron and threatening a couple of times on his own, the Leafs took close to seven minutes to get a shot on Soderblom with not much else going. They almost escaped the period, but with Tanev in the box, Chicago cashed its power-play ticket, one of the few elements of their game that has done well this season.
Another ex-Leaf, Tyler Bertuzzi, was in Joseph Woll’s line of sight, absorbing a hard point shot in the mid-section that Teuvo Teravainen swept in with 11 seconds remaining.
Woll won his 20th game of the year in his first post-break start as the Leafs will take Monday off ahead of Tuesday’s game in Boston.
Auston Matthews was sniffing for a goal throughout the evening, but remained at 389 for his career, and one shy of passing Darryl Sittler for second in franchise history. He did get an assist to extend his points streak to six games.
Sunday’s result ended a frustrating run of 13 games for Toronto at the United Center where they hadn’t won against the rebuilding Hawks (0-10-3). Their previous win had come in February of 2003 when Max’s father Tie had a Toronto goal and Ed Belfour was in the crease.
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