The Maple Leafs once again found a way to win on Sunday, overcoming some dodgy goaltending and a few defensive breakdowns with an offensive explosion in Pittsburgh. A 6-5 overtime win extended their winning streak to five games and reclaimed first place in the Atlantic for the time being.

Maybe it was the 1 p.m. start, but this game was as chaotic as we’ll find this season. The Leafs haven’t made it easy in any of the games since the break, but they keep finding ways to win during this five-game streak.

Your Game in 10:

1.   After a “lacklustre” performance in NYC, Craig Berube’s message to the team before this rare matinee matchup was: “This game is all about shot attempts… Let’s shoot pucks. It’s not a bad play to shoot a puck today.”

The Leafs took the gameplan to heart, firing more shots on goal in the first seven or eight minutes of this game than their total unblocked shot attempts (12) in the first 40 minutes at MSG. It proved an effective game plan against a fragile Pens team backstopped by the vulnerable Joel Blomqvist.

The Leafs‘ third line of Bobby McMann, Max Domi, and Nick Robertson has been a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde story this season, but they got off to a fast start in this one. Following a dump-in on net, Blomqvist and Ryan Graves weren’t on the same page, and Robertson recovered the puck after the miscommunication. Robertson did well to get the puck out front quickly, and while the centering pass didn’t get through cleanly, it found its way to McMann, who swept the puck over to a wide-open Domi. On his 30th birthday, Domi buried his first goal of 2025 — busting a 27-game goal slump — into the open net.

2.   Still in the first five minutes of the game, the Leafs scored another goal via an unlikely source on a goal all about off-the-puck movement to create space and lanes.

On an offensive-zone draw, John Tavares won the faceoff back to William Nylander. As he often does, Nylander danced around trying to create space and separation, which drew in a few Penguins defenders. Nylander slid it to Pontus Holmberg, who rotated high in the zone, and Holmberg sent a really nice pass down to Connor Timmins, pinching down to the left circle. Timmins boldly ignored a wide-open Tavares at the backpost and fired a perfect odd-angle shot off the far post and in.

Just as their secondary forwards have picked it up, the Leafs‘ defense is suddenly coming on offensively, with goals in six consecutive games. They’re still last in the league in the category, but they’ve closed the gap somewhat to the point where it’s less egregious.

3.   With two quick goals to jumpstart them, the Leafs ran the show for the first half of that period and easily could’ve made it 3-0. But just past the halfway mark, Nylander got a little over-eager, smelling the blood in the water with an opportunity to release the zone as the weak-side winger when the puck traveled up the left wall. The Leafs lost the puck battle, and when the Penguins worked it back around the other side of the net via Blake Lizotte, Ryan Shea was pinching in to rip a one-timer past Joseph Woll (after a slight deflection off of Cody Glass), with Nylander late arriving.

Nylander often gets those reads right, but this time, especially given the time and place with the Leafs in full control of the game — no real need to press for offense at that stage — it cost them. It was also the first of a few stoppable goals past Woll.

4.   If the 2-1 goal wasn’t fully on Woll, the next two mostly were.

Just a minute later, the Penguins’ 2-2 goal was scored off a faceoff win by Pittsburgh, as Crosby beat Auston Matthews clean (he did four out of six times in this game in the Toronto zone), leading to a shot that was clearly heading wide. Woll overplayed it to his right, and following a bounce out the other side of the net, he couldn’t recover in time to take care of Rickard Rakell’s shot at the backpost.

This goal was a particularly uncharacteristic error from a goalie who is usually really quiet and efficient with his movements in the crease.

5.   Just 1.5 minutes later, the Maple Leafs went to the PK after Domi got beat through the middle by Evgeni Malkin and took a slashing penalty. Conor Timmins had a chance to clear the zone but didn’t get it past Erik Karlsson, who barely held it in at the line. From there, the goal itself was pretty cut and dry. Crosby’s shot along the ice from a wide angle in the left circle had to be stopped by Woll. 

If Berube had any consideration for a pull tonight, it probably would’ve come after this goal, but the Leafs are in a back-to-back tomorrow, and Stolarz had played three of four since the break. Woll was going to have to stay in the fight.

6.   Since January 22nd, Matthews had scored just a single goal (including the 4 Nations Faceoff), and it was on an empty net. It was some relief to Matthews himself and the fan base at large to see him rip one through a goalie early in the second period to tie the game back up.

This goal also marked a couple of milestones: Matthews moved into sole possession of second place in Leafs franchise history in goals, and Mitch Marner also picked up an assist, moving into sole possession of fifth place in points.

Those are the gaudy stats surrounding the Leafs’ 3-3 tally, but Simon Benoit deserved a nod on the goal for putting in the extra effort to finish off his shift. He jumped up into the rush and won a battle to slide the puck in front for two good initial looks for Knies and Matthews before Knies found Matthews in front for the goal. Benoit didn’t grab an official assist, but the extra-effort play late in his shift set the whole offensive sequence in motion.

7.   Only seconds after that Matthews tally, Oliver Ekman-Larsson bailed Woll out of another iffy moment, as the Leafs’ netminder was too late getting across on a wraparound attempt, and OEL was able to disrupt it. Woll’s typically sharp and efficient puck tracking seemed off the mark compared to his usual standard in this game.

Later in the second period, there wasn’t much blame to lay at Woll’s feet on the 4-3 Pittsburgh goal. Nearly 50 seconds into his shift, Knies didn’t get a puck deep at the red line, as he was stuffed by the gapping-up defender, Erik Karlsson. Tavares overskated the puck afterward vs. stopping on it, allowing the Penguins to break the other way on a 3v2.

OEL was left to defend against Crosby and Rust in space off the rush and needed to respect Crosby enough not to back way off the puck carrier. Crosby slid it past OEL to Rust, who cut across the crease and beat Woll at the back post.

8.   The game then fully went off the rails before the second period ended. With less than a minute to go, Jake McCabe fired a rocket of a stretch pass from the Leafs’ zone to Tavares, who caught Karlsson on a bad change to break in all alone. The finish was superb.

If you watched his interview at the time, the Team Canada 4 Nations snub was clearly disappointing for the normally unshakeable/robotic Tavares. It did bring the silver lining of a few weeks off for a veteran player who noticeably slowed down during the stretch run last season. So far, coming out of the break, Tavares has five points in four games while playing over 19 minutes per night.

That should’ve been it for the period, but then came the most memorable goal of this wild game. Karlsson gave the Leafs two gifts within a minute; Matthew Knies picked off his blind, soft pass across the top of the zone off a defensive-zone draw for the Leafs with just 5.9 seconds to go.

That’s not supposed to be enough time to score on a breakaway off a d-zone faceoff loss, but Knies dug in as hard as he could to race down the ice and showed immaculate awareness to time his well-placed shot before the buzzer (0.1 seconds when it crossed the goal line). How quickly Knies executed under the time pressure combined with the composure to still pick his spot with his shot so well — vs. panicking or rushing it off his stick — made for one of the more memorable goals of the season.  

9.   The strange number of goals coming from immediate breakdowns after faceoffs continued right away in the third period. Off the opening draw, the Penguins sent it up the wall, and McCabe gapped up, as expected, to force the dump in. However, Matthews got beat by Rakell in the one-on-one battle; we saw him do a similar thing in Columbus for a rush goal against earlier this season. He gambled as the last man back by trying a quick stick lift on the wrong side of the puck, and it bit him. 

Sometimes, in these wild back-and-forth affairs, the two teams sober up/eventually settle down and decide to try to play actual/respectable defense when the third period comes around and the points are now on the line. That is mostly what took place in this game. The standout chance was Tavares’ second breakaway opportunity of the game, but he couldn’t finish on the backhand. 

In overtime, after Rielly’s shot was stopped and bounced out of the Penguins’ zone, he won the race to regain possession. He then circled back and handed the puck off to William Nylander, who did the rest. After a nice move past Rakell through the neutral zone, he was as poised as ever, casually drifting to the middle of the ice and firing a quick snap shot that caught Blomqvist off guard to win it.

10.   Overall, this was a chaotic game for the Leafs — who weren’t particularly detailed defensively, starting at the top of the lineup — but it’s yet another example of them finding different ways to win; add “overcoming an off night from the goaltender” to the list during this five-game winning streak. The last two games have been far from convincing at times, but they have still yet to lose when leading after two periods.

When you look at the following L10 records at the top of the Atlantic, the points are absolutely critical, even if the process needs some work.

  • TBL: 9-0-1
  • FLA: 8-2-0
  • TOR: 8-2-0

Over to you, Tre.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/ Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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