In Toronto, the Columbus Blue Jackets took a 5-0 lead over the Maple Leafs into the third period on the Thursday night.
“We played a solid, solid two periods,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. “Systematic, winning battles, managing the puck, that was a solid two periods and we found a way to win (in overtime), so that part was really good. That could be a good boost for us, but we will go over the reviews (of the third period) tomorrow and learn from that.”
They promptly surrendered five goals to the Leafs in the third period to find themselves in extra time.
Kent Johnson rescued the Blue Jackets when he hit for the game-winner at 3:26 of the extra session for a 6-5 win.
“That felt really good,” Johnson said. “It’s obviously been not the most ideal start (to the season) for me and tonight felt awesome, so that was great.
“For me, I was just excited it was overtime. When you reach that, you don’t really care about the third period at that point, it’s just overtime. Just try to have fun playing it and get the job done.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 43 saves in the win.
Columbus moved to 10-16-5.
The third period ice was tilted into the Columbus zone for the entire 20 minutes.
Toronto outshot Columbus 21-7 in the third.
Auston Matthews hit for a double in the third.
William Nylander got the rally started with 38 seconds of fresh ice used to get the Maple Leafs on the board at 5-1.
Mitchell Marner hit at 3:49 to make it 5-2, and the rally was underway.
Jake McCabe hit off the power play at 14:21. to get the Leafs within 5-3.It was his first goal of the season
Matthews then hit for his double to tie the game, 5-5.
“Nobody was sulking, nobody was down on each other,” Matthews said. “It was all encouragement to just get out there and play hockey. This is our building and being embarrassed the first two periods, just go out there and put in a solid effort.”
His first came at 18:45 to make it 5-4, and the double was just 30 seconds later to force the extra session and rescue the loser’s point for Toronto.
Columbus scored twice in the opening stanza to take a 2-0 lead on the Maple Leafs.
“It doesn’t fall for us early in that second and then the lead starts to grow and now it’s a tough game to play,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “If you’re a player, it’s a tough game to get through that, but again, I think that’s all the more reason why it’s a credit to the group to just regroup in the second intermission and go out and give it what you’ve got, and it turned out to be a fun night. We had more than enough looks, but when you gamble a little bit like we did in regulation, you risk giving up that point.
“Obviously Columbus deserves two points here tonight, so us losing the second point is probably an appropriate result based on the way the game went, but I loved the fight and spirit of our group.”
Patrik Laine scored at 6:19 for a 1-0 lead.
Laine left the ice with about seven minutes gone in the middle frame with an apparent upper-body injury.
Johnson scored his first of two on the night at 11:56 for a 2-0 advantage to Columbus after 20 minutes.
The Blue Jackets added three more in the middle frame to seemingly take control of the game headed to the third period.
Justin Danforth scored at 8:16 of the second, sending the puck into the net off a carom from Ilya Maple Leafs’ goalie Ilya Samsonov’s blocker for a 3-0 lead..
Yegor Chinakhov extended the advantage to 4-0 midway through the frame.
Johnny Gaudreau hit off the power play at 14:19 to balloon the lead to 5-0.with a shot from the left circle.
“I mean, I don’t really have words for it I guess,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “Confusing a little bit. Obviously we know we’ve blown some leads in here this year… I really don’t know, I guess, how to explain it, but I don’t really want to talk about that too much. We found a way to win. We did a lot of good things tonight in the first two periods and to find a way to get two points on the road against a good hockey team, we’ll take that any day.”
The Maple Leafs dropped to 15-6-6.
Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves left the game at 9:24 of the first period with an apparent left leg injury after falling awkwardly into the boards. He did not return.
Ilya Samsonov made 29 saves in the loss.
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