John Tavares capped a two-goal, one-assist night by scoring with five seconds left in overtime as the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs bested the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 in an entertaining though predictably physical Monday night clash.
Tavares sealed the deal for the Maple Leafs (32-30-13, 77 points) with a tip on the doorstep off a low, quick feed from Morgan Rielly.
Toronto’s William Nylander tallied four points on the night, including the tying goal halfway through the third period. Rielly had a goal and an assist, Matthew Knies added a goal and Easton Cowan and Oliver Ekman-Larsson each had two assists as the Maple Leafs won for the third time in four games.
Leo Carlsson scored twice for Anaheim (41-28-4, 86 points), which has lost two in a row (0-1-1). John Carlson and Cutter Gauthier also scored, and Jackson LaCombe logged two assists.
Anthony Stolarz stopped 28 of 32 shots for the Maple Leafs, while Ville Husso turned away 23 of 28 for the Ducks.
The teams combined for a 85 penalty minutes, 61 assessed to Toronto. Maple Leafs forward Max Domi received two five-minute majors for fighting while he and teammate Michael Pezzetta were each issued game misconducts. Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury after McCabe cross-checked him in the back.
Ducks captain Radko Gudas insisted on playing even as he was clearly less than his best. The Czech veteran’s injury status attracted disproportionate intrigue, Gudas having ended Toronto captain Auston Matthews’ season on March 12 with an ugly knee-on-knee hit for which he received a five-game suspension. Gudas dropped the gloves with Domi at the opening faceoff but seemingly refused to throw a punch.
Carlsson opened the scoring for Anaheim 6:43, and Gauthier made it 2-0 three minutes later on a power play. Tavares breathed some life into the visitors with a power-play goal at 14:18 of the first period.
Carlson responded in the second period with his first goal as a Duck, wristing one over Stolarz’s glove when Anaheim was short-handed.
Knies made it 3-2 early in the third with a powerful wrist shot that tucked just inside the post on another power play.
Nylander proceeded to tie the game 3-3 at 10:14 of the third. Beckett Senecke misplayed a pass into the skates of Cowan just inside Toronto’s blue line, allowing the rookie to feed Nylander on a breakaway.
Rielly thought he had completed the Leafs’ third-period comeback from 3-1 down, beating Husso just under the glove at 17:00. However, Carlsson, who had left the game earlier in the period due to an apparent ankle injury before appearing back on the bench, responded just over a minute later to knot it at 4-4.
The result was somewhat overshadowed by the sudden firing of Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving earlier in the day. The victory extended Toronto’s winning streak over Anaheim to seven games.
