Marner rallies Leafs, Panthers rebound to win in overtime
Mitch Marner said it was a new priority of his: The Maple Leafs top playmaker, known primarily for his dazzling passes, had been vowing to shoot more, especially when the Leafs have a man advantage.
Six-on-five, with Toronto goaltender Frederik Andersen on the bench, was as good a time as any. Marner’s blocker-high shot with 1:40 left in regulation, his second goal of the third period, forced overtime in a 4-3 loss to the Florida Panthers. Aleksander Barkov capped a hat trick by scoring the winner with 1:36 to go in the extra frame.
It’s a good thing for the Maple Leafs that they’re the least penalized team in the NHL. Their penalty kill is nobody’s idea of a state-of-the-art opera- tion. The Panthers’ power play did as it pleased against the visiting penalty killers, scoring on two of their first three attempts on goals by Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau to give Florida a 2-0 lead.
Still, the Leafs, who were largely listless through the opening two periods, salvaged a point by mounting a third-period push to tie it, thanks to Marner’s pair of goals and another from John Tavares. Barkov put the Panthers up 3-2 with 3:12 left, thanks to some brutal defensive-zone coverage from the third defensive pairing of Travis Dermott and Igor Ozhiganov, who both somehow found themselves together in the same corner while the puck was centred and roofed.
Toronto continued its December swoon by dropping its fourth game in five tries.
á Luongo, respected: The veteran Panthers goaltender, who robbed William Nylander on a first-period breakaway, is 15 games away from passing Pat- rick Roy for second place on the all-time goaltender games played list behind Martin Brodeur. Babcock can say he saw it coming. “I remember in junior in the Memorial Cup we had 60 shots on him, or something like that. He was unbelievable. We had to beat him in overtime, or something like that,” Babcock said. “Right from the world junior time right through, he’s been a star. He reads the game better than most goalies. He’s big enough, he’s been able to play deep in his net. And he’s obviously been able to spend some time staying healthy.”
á Faith in Ozhiganov: While Ozhiganov has been the undisputed sixth defenceman in a six-D rotation, and while he had some head-shaking moments on Saturday, Babcock is optimistic the Russian NHL rookie is destined for better things. “His
ability to pass the puck is so important. As his fitness comes and he gets used to the tighter quarters and gets quicker, which is good for us, we think he’s got a whole ’nother level to get to,” Babcock said. “That’s sure what our plan is with him, and we think he’s going that way.”
á McCabe honoured: Former Leafs defenceman and exPanthers captain Bryan McCabe dropped the ceremonial puck at Saturday’s game. Babcock remembered relying heavily on McCabe as the head coach with Spokane in the Western Hockey League. “One night in Moose Jaw … I’d coached (there). They had fired my butt so I wanted to win bad, obviously. I didn’t let (McCabe) off the ice. I played him so much he was lying on the bench cramped up. In those days, you didn’t have a lot of things to look after that. We probably didn’t hydrate right, probably didn’t feed him right, all those things. Caber’s a good man.”