Never, ever take a tram lightly.
That is nothing new, but the Maple Leafs learned a hard lesson on home ice Saturday night in a 4-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Kent Johnson scored with less than six minutes left on the clock to snap a 3-3 tie and send the Blue Jackets to the win.
“A little bit [nervous],” Johnson said. “It was the first time I had one of those [reviews] on a goal so I was a little nervous but great it worked out.”
Elvis Merzlikins made 27 saves in the Columbus win.
The Blue Jackets moved to 16-33-4, the win snapped a four=game skid for Columbus.
“This is a top five team in the NHL, they’ve been building for years,” Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. “It’s not like they just got themselves on the map. They’ve been coming for a while this core that they have so we have to slowly build here.
“It’s been tough sledding with the injuries and everything we’ve gone through but there’s moments within the season we can grow. Not having the best first that we wanted but then responding with the second [period] and responding with the third.”
William Nylander and Michael Bunting scored in the first period to give the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead.
“There’s so many times where you come in with a good second and then the third, they take over again, it happens all the time,” Larsen said. “I don’t love that we got scored on [in the third], I loved how we responded after we got scored on. We came back and we just stuck to the game plan and that’s a great sign.”
The Blue Jackets rallied back to tie the game, 2-2, on second period goals from Boone Jenner and Kirill Marchenko.
“That’s a spot we want to get better at, going into the third with a lead, learning how to defend,” Jenner said. “That was a gutsy win. They got one early [in the third] and then we found one in the third. A lot of blocks, a lot of great efforts defensively and listen, we got the job done so it feels good when you win that one.”
Toronto dropped to 32-14-8.
“Effort, competitiveness,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “You’ve got to make the decision how important it is to you. That’s really it.”
Late in the middle frame, Sean Kuraly pushed the Blue Jackets into the lead, 3-2, off a poke in the low slot.
The Maple Leafs got even at 3-3 on a goal from Morgan Rielly with 80 seconds gone in the third period.
“Truthfully, I thought we were really good in the first and then it’s just like a small lapse that ends up costing you,” Rielly said. “There’s plenty of good players in this League, guy on teams all over, up and down standings. If you don’t play well, and you don’t play your structure and play hard and compete, they’re going to make you pay.”
Use CodePHN15
Joseph Woll made 36 saves in the Maple Leafs loss.
“That was a pretty awesome atmosphere to play in,” Woll said. “It’s pretty special playing in front of our home crowd. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the win for them. But definitely experience I’ll remember.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.