Leafs overcome terrible start, edge Hurricanes
RALEIGH — Mike Babcock wanted to add a dash of speed against a quick Carolina Hurricanes club, and got that on Friday night at the PNC Arena.
Still, let’s keep Josh Leivo’s return to the Maple Leafs lineup after sitting for four games in perspective.
While Leivo scored a pretty goal in the second period, without the great goaltending of Frederik Andersen in the opening 20 minutes, the chances the Leafs beat the Carolina Hurricanes would have dwindled considerably.
But Andersen was dandy early, stopping all 14 shots he faced in the first period to help the Leafs settle and eventually go on to a 5-4 victory before an announced crowd of 15,241.
Carolina fired 47 shots at Andersen, scoring twice late in the third to put the Leafs on their heels.
Leivo was in and out was Matt Martin, a healthy scratch for the first time as a Leaf.
Carolina scored early in the third when Jordan Staal took advantage of a fortuitous bounce, but the Leafs responded on a power-play goal by Patrick Marleau at 5:27.
The goal was set up by Auston Matthews, who had gone two games without a point.
With six minutes to play, Elias Lindholm scored, followed by a Noah Hanifin goal.
Toronto scored four goals on 12 shots in the second period, and it got to the point that veteran netminder Cam Ward was getting razzed by some fans following routine saves.
Zach Hyman scored the first Leafs goal at 53 seconds after Jake Gardiner deked and brought Ward sprawling out of the net. As much as Ward was out of position, Hyman was able to out-muscle Justin Faulk and Teuvo Teravainen and put Gardiner’s pass into an open net. It was Hyman’s first goal in 14 games.
The Leafs built a 2-0 lead at 7:14 when Leivo used his speed, and then his terrific shot, to beat Ward on the glove side after Andreas Borgman moved the puck into open ice. Leivo has 10 goals (including three in 10 career games versus Carolina) in 47 NHL games, as well as 10 assists.
Ron Hainsey, of all people, walked in from the point to beat Ward high on the blocker side at 11:37, giving the Leafs defenceman a bit of revenge after Carolina traded him to Pittsburgh last season. Okay, so Hainsey’s revenge came when he lifted the Stanley Cup in the spring, but we digress.
Derek Ryan got the Hurricanes on the scoreboard at 13:35 when he got behind an unaware Borgman to slip the puck between Andersen’s legs.
The Leafs’ three-goal lead was restored at 18:24 when James van Riemsdyk’s shot hit the post, hit Ward and trickled over the goal line. On the ice was van Riemsdyk’s brother Trevor, defending for the ’Canes, and in the stands were their parents, Frans and Allison.
Ward was pulled in favour of Scott Darling to start the third period after allowing four goals on 16 shots. By then, Andersen had made 26 saves.
The first period was forgotten by the time the final buzzer sounded. However, it’s on the shoulders of Babcock to get a heck of a lot more out of his players in the opening 20 minutes.
For the fifth game in a row, the Leafs failed to score in the first. Not only were they outshot 14-4, the shot attempts told a scarier story. The Hurricanes had 31 to the Leafs’ eight.
Including Friday night, the Leafs have been outshot 55-26 in the past four first periods.
There’s no excuse for that kind of shoddy hockey out of the gate and at some point it could catch up to the Leafs.
Andersen alone kept the Leafs in contention, making several great saves. A glove on Victor Rask and an earlier point-blank stop on Teravainen were among Andersen’s top saves.
After the morning skate, Babcock was hoping William Nylander would get some confidence back, having scored one goal in his previous 15 games.
Nylander assisted on van Riemsdyk’s goal.