In Detroit, the Toronto Maple Leafs held a 7-2 lead heading into the third period on Saturday night.
Granted no lead is safe in any sport, but five goals?
The Detroit Red Wings scored five times in the the third period, to get within 7-6, and 8-7 before finally running out of gas in a 10-7 decision to the Leafs.
“That was exciting for the fans, but it is fool’s gold for a coach, because what happened out there wasn’t good enough,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “It wasn’t close to being good enough.”
Mitchell Marner hit for four goals and six points in the Toronto win.
“I won’t lie, that was pretty cool,” Marner said. “I had a couple hat tricks in juniors, and I’ve had chances in the NHL, but I hadn’t gotten one. I tried to stay calm when the third one went in, but it was a cool moment.”
Michael Bunting had a goal and assisted on all four of Marner’s goals.
“I don’t know if I can even put that into words,” the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews said (goal). “I’ve never played in a game like that.”
Filip Hronek struck once and added three assists in the Detroit loss.
The Red Wings dropped to 23-24-6.
Marner scored a natural hat trick in the second period.
William Nylander, David Kampf, and Bunting scored in the opening period for the Leafs.
Lucas Raymond scored to give the Red Wings their first goal and make it 3-1 coming out of the first period.
“We were great in the first two periods, that was one of our best starts of the year,” Bunting said. “We were hounding them, creating chances and scoring goals.”
Matthews also scored in the second period for the Maple Leafs.
Sam Gagner scored for the Red Wings in the middle frame.
In the third period, Hronek, Carter Rowney, and Joe Veleno got the Red Wings within 7-5.
After a change in Toronto goalies, with Jack Campbell departing, and Petr Mrazek coming, Michael Rasmussen scored to get Detroit within 7-6.
Ilya Mikheyev made it 8-6 in favor of the Leafs, and Detroit’s Raymond scored his second of the match to get back to one.
Toronto’s Ondrej Kase hit for a shorthanded goal, and Marner capped his night with his fourth of the game for the 10-7 final.
Alex Nedeljkovic got the start for the Red Wings and yielded three goals and made 10 saves before departing the crease midway through the first period.
“We got down 3-0 right off the bat, so I made a change to try to get something going,” Blashill said. “When [Greiss] gives up four more, I decided to go back to [Nedeljkovic] because he hasn’t played much recently because of the schedule.”
Thomas Greiss made 10 saves and surrendered four goals before yielding the net back to Nedeljkovic in the third period.
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