Seven isn’t lucky for the Ducks
Rakell’s two goals are not nearly enough to keep them from losing all three during swing.
They end three-city Canadian swing with a 7-4 loss as Toronto Maple Leafs unload on goaltender Miller.
TORONTO 7, DUCKS 4
TORONTO — William Nylander scored twice, including the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Ducks 7-4 on Monday night.
Rickard Rakell scored twice for the Ducks, and Corey Perry assisted on all four goals. Ryan Getzlaf and Ondrej Kase also scored.
“We’re not going to beat anybody 8-7, I’ll tell you that ... the way we’ve played defensive hockey is abysmal, giving up over five goals a night,” Getzlaf said.
The Ducks lost their third in a row, giving up 14 goals in losses to Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.
Maple Leafs starting goaltender Frederik Andersen left at 6 minutes 15 seconds of the second period after being struck in the head by Perry’s left skate.
Andersen was replaced by Curtis McElhinney, who improved to 6-4 this season. Coach Mike Babcock said Andersen seemed fine after the game.
Nylander scored his second goal of the game on a breakaway. His wrist shot beat goaltender Ryan Miller at 3:28 of the third period to put Toronto ahead 5-4.
“It’s not terrible, but we’d like to clean up a few things,” said Miller, who gave up six goals on 39 shots. “I thought the third-period goals were things we could just clean up by structure.”
The Maple Leafs opened the scoring 6:32 into the first period when Auston Matthews skated in unabated and wrapped the puck around the net and past Miller. Matthews finished with two goals.
The Ducks responded when Rakell centered a pass to Getzlaf in front and his shot beat Andersen 43 seconds into the second period.
Nylander and Rakell traded goals before Kase scored at 8:23 on the power play to give the Ducks a 3-2 lead.
Toronto answered with a power-play goal by Mitch Marner to tie the score 3-3 at 15:28 of the second period and Leo Komarov put the Maple Leafs ahead 4-3 by tipping Jake Gardiner’s shot past Miller at 17:40.
Rakell scored his second goal of the game at 2:07 of the third period to tie the score 4-4.
TONIGHT
AT BUFFALO When: 4 PST. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 830. Update: Miller started all three games in a swing through Canada because John Gibson has a lowerbody injury, and if Gibson can’t play tonight, it will likely be Reto Berra in net . ... Perry was elevated from the fourth line back to the top unit Monday and responded with a season-best four assists . ... The Ducks are pushing for the playoffs but are on the outside looking in. Their 60 points tie them with two other teams, and with a game against the Eastern Conference-worst Sabres (37 points) on tap, they need to find a way to come away with two points. Buffalo has lost three games in a row.