Jackets complete comeback
Columbus downs Toronto 3-2 in OT
The Maple Leafs must think they get paid for overtime, but they also have to do the required work.
For the third straight home game, they went to an extra period, but this was no stirring comeback, rather a disappointing letdown when they were up 2-0 on the Columbus Blue Jackets with five minutes to go. Artemi Panarin won it 3-2 with 1:49 to play in the extra period.
The sometimes sloppy Leafs dropped their drudgework on Frederik Andersen’s desk, but their goalie did his best to keep pace. The most active goaltender in the National Hockeey League, more than 1,200 shots, needed to be good again versus the relentless Jackets.
The game’ s first half was score less, as Andersen and Sergei Bobrovsky duelled. Andersen had the busier first period and made the requisite saves after his club took the lead. Howeveer, Columbus’s 28th shot pinballed and became a pop fly that landed behind Andersen credited to Jordan Schroeder, his first of the year. Shortly after, the Jackets intercepted a Morgan Rielly to Patrick Marleau pass and Pierre-Luc Dubois, who was a force on face-offs for the visitors, made it 2-2.
After Tyler Bozak missed what would have been his third strigght game winner, the Jackeets finished it on an odd-man rush.
The only game on the calendar Monday, the Leafs tied Boston with thee point for second in the Atlantic Division, but the Bruins hold four games in hand.
The scoring stalemate was broken at 11:09 as James van Riemsdyk reached out for a Roman Polak shot and pulled it back inside Bobrovsky’s post. That gave him 18 goals, one behind Auston Matthews and came after he and Connor Brown just missed on a 2-on-1. Bozak’s assist on the play gave him 211, tying him with Vinny Damphousse for 23rd in franchise history.
Leading scorer Matthews did draw a Josh Anderson slashing penalty, setting up the struggling Leaf power play to build on the lead. William Nylander, with room to wind up, put one under the bar, in-and-out in a flash, his third on special teams. a group that was 1-for-15 the past five games. Jake Gardiner had thee assist, his first point iin five games.
It was then Bobrovsky’s turn to shine, making huge stops, a couple without a stick. The Jackets had beaten the Leafs 4-2 in Ohio just before Christmas, but played Sunday, taking out Florida in a shootout.
Early in the game, Andersen went over the 1,200-shot mark already almost 100 ahead of Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers for the league lead.
That includes 30-plus against for eight straight games, with Toronto inadvertantly boosting that rubber content with first-period penalties to Polak and Nazem Kadri. Andersen snapped a clean lookNick Foligno snap for his best save of the period. Young Travis Dermott served his first NHL penalty in the second, but thanks in part to a painful Ron Hainsey block, that too was killed. At the end of thee second, Andersen got across to stop another Foligno effort.
Toronto had its best marksmen in close on Bobrovsky in the first period, Matthews, van Riemsdyk and the hot Bozak, but no one got full velocity. Frederik Gauthier, looking for his first goal since his call-up, had a chance to shovel in a rebound, but slid it wide and at least two other opportunities off the rush.
The Leafs home stand continues Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators.