After blowing a 4-2 lead over the Ottawa Senators Wednesday night, Morgan Rielly struck for the eventual game-winner in a 5-4 win for the Maple Leafs in Toronto.
“There were periods of the game where we felt really good about the way we were playing, but that being said, I think there were parts where we got away from our game plan a little bit,” Rielly said. “For the most part, there were some good things that happened, and the end result was obviously what you want.”
Zach Hyman had a goal and assisted on the winner.
“[Rielly] made a great play skating and then got it to me,” Hyman said. “I just wanted to try to be like [Mitchell Marner] there. … I was just trying to get it backdoor, and it’s good [Rielly] was there and he put it in. I didn’t really think about it too much. I just wanted to put it in a space for him, he was driving hard.”
John Tavares, Andreas Johnsson and Auston Matthews also scored for the Leafs.
“The bottom line is I thought we were really ready to play. … I thought we were playing well,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “Then we just got careless and we never really seemed to be able to get it back. At the same time, when you’re a good team, you win games sometimes that aren’t very pretty, but you still won.”
Frederik Andersen made 39 saves in the win.
The Leafs improved to 33-17-3.
Magnus Paajarvi had two strikes in the loss, and Matt Duchene and Thomas Chabot added single markers.
The Sens dropped to 19-29-5.
“Obviously, we’re not happy with our mistakes, but at the end of the day, we were playing a very solid team and we feel like we could have won, we feel like we played well,” Chabot said after the loss. “They’re a very talented team, a Stanley Cup contender, and obviously to play well like that against them, it can be a positive for us,”
[WATCH: All Senators vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Craig Anderson made 25 saves in the loss.
“I thought we had momentum for a good portion of the game, but we made a couple mistakes and they made us pay, and that was all the momentum they needed,” Anderson said. “We came out flying in the third, got it back to 4-4, but we made a couple mistakes and they made good on their chances.”
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