A first period goal from Andreas Borgman was just not enough for the Toronto Maple Leafs Friday night as they dropped a 3=1 decision to the Red Wings in Detroit.
It was their third straight loss following the injury to and absence of Auston Matthews.
The defense got into the game for the Red Wings who got two goals from defensemen Danny DeKeyser and Trevor Daley (shorthanded).
“This was a good night for us,” Daley said. “We got down by one early, but we battled back and got the win. We know we’re a good team, but the results haven’t shown that lately. Tonight, we saw the rewards.”
Tomas Tatar also scored for Detroit.
“I saw [Zetterberg] pick up a lot of speed and beat his guy, so I was trying to get in position for a rebound,” Tatar said. “He passed it right onto my stick, so that’s a good play.”
Toronto is missing Matthews but they need to find some scoring from across the bench and not lean on the excuse.
“Obviously, we’re missing a great offensive player, and that makes things easier for the other team,” the Leafs’ Tyler Bozak said. “When he’s on the ice, the other team has to focus on him, but we’ve won five games without him, so it isn’t an excuse.”
Detroit struck twice in the middle frame to erase the early deficit and take control of the game.
“I didn’t think we had the same compete level in the first period that we’ve had recently,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We talked about it between periods, and we were much better in the second.”
Jimmy Howard made 25 saves to pick up the win.
“I thought we had a good first period, and we were still playing well into the second period,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “Once they got the first goal, we unraveled a little, and after the shorthanded goal, we were chasing the game.”
The win pushed the Wings to 12-13-7.
[WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Red Wings highlights]
Curtis McElhinney made 26 saves in taking the loss.
“I felt good out there, but I probably needed to make one more save,” McElhinney said. “If I could have kept them to two, we’re right in the game.”
The loss dropped the Leafs to 20-13-1.
“This team plays hard, and when you do that, good things will happen. It isn’t easy, though, because the other team plays hard too. That’s the great thing about this league: Things are never supposed to be easy,” Babcock said.
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