Not often you lose $2 million and a hockey game in the same day, but it happened Wednesday night in Chicago.
The Toronto Maple Leafs rallied back from an 0-2 deficit in their game with the Blackhawks and completed the rally when William Nylander scored in extra time for a 3-2 win.
“It hasn’t been looking too pretty the last few nights,” Nylander said. “Tonight, I think we got closer to where we want to be, but not fully there yet.”
The decision kept the Blackhawks from recording their first win of the season.
“We battled but didn’t kill the game when we had our chances,” Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “… In the beginning of the third (period), that power play we hit a couple of posts. They played hard, didn’t get rewarded with two points.”
They dropped to 0-5-2.
Jack Campbell made 27 saves for the Maple Leafs in the win.
“A couple guys stepped up,” Campbell said. “I think that got us [ticked] off. I know me, personally, I wasn’t happy whatsoever with my game hard as they possibly could the rest of the way, and we got the win.” in the first period. Not my game plan. I knew I owed the team better than that. The guys stepped up, every single one of them and played as
David Kampf forced the extra session when he tied the game, 2-2, in the third period.
John Tavares started the comeback in the middle frame to get the Leafs within one goal.
“It feels good for us,” Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We’ve been through a lot here on this road trip. Some of it’s self-inflicted, but still nonetheless, mentally it’s been a lot. To get two points going home feels good, for sure. There are a lot of things that we still need to clean up. Tonight, at the end of a long road trip with the way things have gone, we fought. We got a great goal from Kampf. That line really worked to get us that goal. To find a way to get the second point, that’s big for us.”
Toronto improved to 3-4-1 with the win.
Chicago took the two-goal lead off strikes from Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat.
“I think we did a lot of good things, gave ourselves a chance to win,” Colliton said. “I liked our start, liked our energy. We played a very mature game. Moving pucks ahead, really good post support, hard forechecking, found ways to force turnovers and created offense. Thought we were good defensively.”
It was the first time this season that Chicago held a lead.
The Hawks’ Kevin Lankinen made 37 saves in the loss.
“I think there were still moments we got back to playing too cute of hockey and not making those simple plays, making chips with speed, forechecking hard,” Chicago’s Tyler Johnson said. “That should be our team’s strength. When we play that way, we play really well. We got away from that a little bit. Toronto’s a good, skilled team, and they were able to put the puck in the net. It’s a step forward, not anywhere close to where we want to be, but we have to keep moving forward.”
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