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Led by Joseph Woll’s goaltending performance, the Maple Leafs erased a 3-0 deficit by rattling off seven unanswered goals with offensive contributions from up and down the lineup. 

Your game in 10:

1.   The Leafs weren’t ready to match Montreal’s pace early in the game. Multiple times in the first four or five minutes, they got beat by the Habs down the ice for dangerous scoring situations, forcing Joseph Woll to be sharp early and leading to the first penalty (on Philippe Myers) and goal against.

These weren’t turnovers up the ice leading to odd-man situations against; on routine breakouts, the Leafs were just letting Montreal forwards (and activating defensemen) fly through the neutral zone and beat them down the ice by not moving their feet or fighting to stay above their check.

The penalty on Myers led to an own-zone delayed-call situation where the top line, specifically Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, left the middle unprotected for a 1-0 goal against.

It was a rough start, all stemming from the Habs having their legs and being ready to go while the Leafs skated in mud early.

2.   From there, the Leafs did not win near enough puck battles to remain competitive in the period. Only Bobby McMann and Pontus Holmberg stood out as having their legs and competitive edge in the first 20 minutes.

Max Domi was well on his way to earning a demotion in this game within his first few shifts, as he either lost his coverage or turned a puck over in the middle of the defensive zone for a couple of grade-A looks against.

Domi wasn’t alone in the mess, though, and Matthews took a sloppy double-minor high-sticking penalty amid a terrible start from the top line (Matthews played 3:30 in the first period). 

The kill was actually quite solid overall, but spend enough continuous time down a man, and something like the Patrik Laine shot deflection off of Conor Timmins is going to happen. 2-0.

3.   You couldn’t help but sense Domi was going to be at least partly responsible for a goal against in this period at some point, and said goal arrived immediately following the Habs power-play marker. After Morgan Rielly stepped up and didn’t make any body contact with Joel Armia while losing the puck battle on the wall, Domi took an unsuccessful swipe at the puck and made zero contact with Josh Anderson, who broke in alone to make it 3-0.

Myers also played this one quite poorly once Anderson sidestepped Domi. He was in the middle of several tough sequences for the Leafs in the period and ended up sitting for most of the game.

It was three Montreal goals on 13 shots to start the night, and not a single goal was on Woll. It easily could’ve been four or five. Why the Leafs didn’t have their legs and seemed allergic to digging in with some body contact to win a puck battle was pretty stunning, given the magnitude of the game (as regular season games go).

Ryan Reaves attempted to fight Arber Xhekaj to spark the team down 3-0, but the invitation was declined. It was understandable for Xhekaj to decline the invitation, given his team’s three-goal lead, but to point to the scoreboard (in the first period) in the process was an interesting move that shouldn’t have been lost on the Leafs.

4.   The only good news at this point in the night was the Leafs had 40 minutes left, and if Woll could hold Montreal at three for long enough, this Habs team is not impenetrable defensively by any stretch of the imagination (nor has Sam Montembault been particularly lights out, even during their winning run).

After the first-period struggles of Myers and the team at large, the Leafs coaching staff started mixing and matching their D pairs. McCabe started the second period with Rielly, Tanev with OEL, and McCabe jumped in for an extra shift with Timmins on the third rotation before Myers briefly touched the ice again with Rielly (Myers finished at 8:14, so the Leafs effectively went down to five D, with McCabe logging a whopping 26:06).

The Leafs finally spent some more time in the offensive zone in the first five minutes of the second, and after Reaves took a big hit from Xhekaj, Timmins threw a great hit in response on Michael Pezzetta in the neutral zone. There were a few glimmers of life from the Leafs perspective.

The Leafs needed another big bail-out from Woll, though, when Tanev was uncharacteristically stripped by Cole Caufield for a scoring chance in alone. A huge post-to-post toe save kept it out, as Woll continued to be the Leafs’ best player in a game they trailed 3-0.

5.   The Leafs put just one shot on goal on their first power play of the game five minutes into the middle frame (although the second unit was better than the top unit, a sign of things to come in the game). The Leafs needed one more bailout before they got their comeback started — this time from the crossbar.

Toronto gave up an odd-man rush due to Domi skating in deep to take a glance at the puck as the high forward (with no hope of recovering it) while McCabe was engaged in the corner and two Leafs forwards were already in deep. Rielly broke up the odd-man rush initially, but with the Leafs scrambling back to their zone/net, Christian Dvorak received a seam pass and ripped it off the bar.

The puck bounced the other way off the crossbar ricochet as the Habs committed numbers forward, and the Leafs immediately slashed the lead to two on a counter-attack 2v1 rush, making for a massive swing in the game.

Bobby McMann was on his off-wing and never seriously considered forcing a pass to Nylander, confidently burying it into the far side of the net with Matthew Knies‘ stick after dropping his own earlier in the shift and grabbing one from the bench.

That goal snapped a seven-game goalless drought in which McMann tallied just one assist and 10 shots on goal. His shot is too good to be shooting so little, but he put five shots on goal tonight in a great overall performance (one of few Leafs going early on and throughout the night).

6.   Craig Berube snuck out the loaded line of Nylander, Marner, and Matthews for an offensive-zone faceoff, seeking to build on the momentum of the 3-1 goal. They nearly made it 3-2 immediately with a nice Nylander one-timer off a Matthews feed from below the goal line that Montembault kicked out.

Another Domi turnover in the middle of the defensive zone required a Woll bailout, and Anderson sneaking out of the zone for a breakaway pass required a missed net to keep the Leafs within reach. Toronto finally started to put together a few shifts of offensive-zone pressure afterward, including a Nylander set up to a jumping-up McCabe at the back post for a good look and save by Montembault.

When Berube reassembled the load-up top line coming out of a TV timeout against the Habs’ fourth line, the Leafs gave up two good chances, including a point-blank one for Kaiden Guhle that Woll gobbled up with no rebound. The Leafs played with fire for much of the first 40 minutes and were deeply indebted to Woll for keeping them within striking distance.

7.   Pontus Holmberg continues to draw penalties — his team-leading 12th could easily go overlooked tonight in such an eventful, high-scoring affair, but it was a critical moment in the game.

Down 3-1 late in the second, the Leafs looked as likely to give up a fourth as narrow the lead to one when Holmberg, somewhat similar to his penalty drawn against New Jersey, gathered speed with the puck through the neutral zone and took on a defender, drawing a call. Holmberg deservedly picked up an assist on the eventual goal when he hit the ice late in the power play. He spent the rest of the game on Nylander and McMann’s line as the 2C in Domi’s place.

It was a better power play from the Leafs by both units; Matthews had a chance in tight, Pacioretty had a chance in tight, and Matthews fired a dangerous-looking one-timer from the slot that caught Pacioretty high in the face (big respect to Pacioretty for getting off on his own accord, given the Leafs had some momentum going).

Off an entry just as the PP was set to expire, the Leafs worked the puck across the blue line to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who found Nick Robertson with a nice shot-for-tip on the tape, as Robertson found a pocket of space in the slot off the entry and presented his stick for a really nice redirect into the far side of the net.

It was now game on, and some of the lesser lights were doing the heavy lifting offensively in this period to get the team back in the game — Holmberg, McMann, Robertson, OEL.

8.   With Holmberg promoted to 2C, the second line — which featured the team’s three best forwards in the game by this point in McMann, Nylander, and Holmberg — tied the game on the first shift of the third.

The Leafs were too loose protecting the middle ice of the defensive zone in the first 40 minutes of the game, but they did a much better job here of converging on the puck with numbers and closing down space. It led to McMann’s blocked shot and a loose-puck foot race out of the zone, leading to a breakaway for Nylander, who showed the impressive speed burst and strength on the puck we’ve become very accustomed to in such situations.

Even though Nylander didn’t have a ton of breathing room to maneuver with Lane Hutson on his back, Montembault sold out hard to his left and basically gave up the net for Nylander to tuck a forehand-backhand deke into.

9.   With the Habs reeling and the Leafs pressing to finish the job, Nylander continued his excellent night by drawing the penalty that led to the go-ahead goal just a few minutes later. He continued to flex his strength on the puck, driving inside on Christian Dvorak and drawing a holding call.

Subsequently, McMann had an excellent shift on the top power-play unit. When Marner turned it over high in the zone, McMann got on his horse and won it right back. It allowed the Leafs to re-establish the zone right away, and once in formation, McMann nearly scored from the bumper position (glove save Montembault) after Matthews delivered a puck into Knies at the front of the net and the puck sprung loose.

The second unit hopped on for the subsequent offensive-zone faceoff, and when Domi won it back to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, OEL leaned into a wrister through traffic that went off Montembault’s shoulder and into the net for the go-ahead goal.

Before tonight, OEL had just one power-play point in 45 games. Granted, he is not in his heyday anymore, but this is one of the most prolific power-play defensemen of his era. If you were looking for areas where the Leafs really could/should see internal improvement on their league-worst goal production from their defense in the second half/playoffs, OEL’s two goals through 45 games would definitely be circled near the top of the list. It was good to see two primary assists (one 5v5, one PP) and a goal (PP) from him in a big win tonight, in addition to 12 shots on goal in his last three games.

10.   The Leafs continued to pour it on after taking the lead, as the McMann-Holmberg-Nylander line created another good chance in tight to the net for Nylander, and the fourth line drew a penalty (via David Kampf).

The top unit did have a couple of good chances in the previous two power plays, but you could certainly make a reasonable argument for the second unit deserving to start this power play after scoring twice in the game. Instead, the top unit took a penalty almost immediately to negate the man advantage.

After a big hit on McMann in the corner (that looked to be a little early relative to the puck arriving), Marner took a stab at the puck at the line instead of backing off, and the puck got by him. Knies scrambled back to catch Jake Evans on the ensuing rush against and was called for a hold that was more of a flop/fall by Evans.

This whole sequence came really close to costing the Leafs their 4-3 lead, as during a four-on-four shift for Nylander and Holmberg (which started well), Kaiden Guhle beat Nylander to the net for a point-blank opportunity that Guhle didn’t get all of. It snuck through Woll’s pads, hit the post, and somehow stayed out.

When that puck stayed out and the Leafs, seconds later, found a fifth unanswered goal (during what was technically a penalty kill but was effectively the remnants of the four-on-four), it was a major gut punch for Montreal. Marner and Matthews connected for a high-slot one-timer play that Matthews absolutely ripped by Montembault.

Woll continued to be really sharp in the lead-up to (and aftermath of) the Leafs sealing the win with a 6-3 goal courtesy of the fourth line (this time Kampf and Lorentz, with Marner in Reaves’ place as the team protected the lead).

After a strong forechecking effort by Kampf and Marner freed up a puck for Lorentz, he worked a give-and-go with OEL, while Montreal’s Patrik Laine and Kirby Dach’s controllers shut off in the defensive zone. Lorentz buried one in tight to round out the team effort offensively (plus one more empty-netter from Kampf).

10b.  A few final notes:

–  As much as the opening 40 minutes were largely a mess for the Leafs, it is reassuring to see them find another level offensively when trailing in two straight games, storming back in both games and claiming all four points against good and/or hot teams. The Leafs were dead-last in goals per 60 when trailing before the New Jersey win — unacceptable for a team with their offensive talent — so these last two wins have been a breath of fresh air in terms of showing that the extra gear is still there, even with Tavares absent. It was particularly nice to see a variety of secondary sources contributing to the comeback this time — McMann, Robertson, OEL, Lorentz — after it was the big boys driving the bus against NJ.

– I liked that Craig Berube didn’t hide from the fact that this game meant more to both teams than the average regular season game. There was a tendency to downplay these circled-on-the-calendar regular-season matchups as “just another game” under the previous head coach. The question, though, is why they were so flat to start if everyone involved acknowledged the extra meaning behind this matchup. Still, there is tons to be said for the team’s lack of quit despite digging a deep hole in a hostile environment — no better example than Joseph Woll staying in the fight and making big save after big save despite conceding three on the first 12 shots. This comeback will go down as one of the more memorable wins/highs of the 2024-25 regular season.

–  It will be pretty difficult for the Leafs coaching staff not to stick with the McMann – Holmberg – Nylander second line that finished tonight’s win to start the next game. The big question is whether a Pacioretty – Domi – Robertson unit can be at all credible as a sheltered third line. You don’t want to overreact after a good game from Domi against New Jersey, but this was easily one of Domi’s worst-ever games in a Leafs sweater. He probably shouldn’t start the next game at 2C on principle alone (maybe he moves there if Holmberg isn’t as effective or they fall behind in the game, but not to start, anyway).

–  I’ll be curious to see if the Leafs want to give Philippe Myers a game to reset after tonight’s benching and reinsert Simon Benoit for the next one. In such a case, the difficulty is figuring out the pairings with four lefties in the mix while facing down the Guentzel – Point – Kucherov matchup against Tampa. They’ll want to match up McCabe-Tanev against Tampa’s big line, and if they remove Myers’ right-handed placement next to Rielly in favour of inserting Benoit somewhere, it doesn’t give them many easy options to form two other pairings with natural, complementary fits. They could consider Rielly-OEL again to go along with McCabe-Tanev and Benoit-Timmins, but shifting OEL back to the right when he’s just regained some momentum within his season seems far less than ideal.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/ Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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