Leafs’ losing streak hits 3

Team’s road trip ends without a point

• The weekend couldn’t come fast enough for the Maple Leafs.

A three- game trip ended the way it started in Philadelphia on Tuesday and continued in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday.

Playing without Auston Matthews for the fourth game in a row as the Leafs’ best player recovers from an upper-body injury, the Leafs lost 3-1 against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.

For the second time this season, the Leafs, who have a rare off-day on Saturday and don’t play again until Tuesday, have lost three games in a row in regulation. The skid comes after Toronto won five of six games.

After t he Leafs were shut out in Minnesota, the club’s forwards fired blanks again, as defenceman Andreas Borgman was the lone Toronto player to score on Wings goalie Jimmy Howard.

The game was the Leafs’ fifth in seven nights, including four on the road, but that’s no excuse for the loss. It’s not as though Toronto is the lone National Hockey League club that faces challenges in their day- to- day hockey lives.

“I just think it’s an opportunity to show how mentally tough you are,” coach Mike Babcock said, referring to the Leafs’ slog through the schedule, during his media availability two hours before the game.

“My first nap today was an hour and my second one was a half- hour, the players got way more ( rest) than I did, so they should be fresh and ready to go. It will be fun.”

Well, it wasn’t fun, unless you were in the crowd wearing red and white. There were rows of empty seats, but the place got loud when Tomas Tatar scored a powerplay goal at 9:39 of the third period, giving the home side a two-goal lead.

Tatar got his stick on a pass from Henrik Zetterberg, as Morgan Rielly didn’t react in time, to direct the puck behind goalie Curtis McElhinney.

The power play came thanks to a dumb penalty by Tyler Bozak, who took it upon himself to check Dylan Larkin in open ice for no apparent reason, resulting in an interference call.

After a sharp opening 20 minutes, the Leafs were quite the opposite in the second and were outplayed for much of the period.

Put it this way — the Wings got goals f rom a pair of defencemen, Danny DeKeyser and Trevor Daley, who had not scored this season. And Daley’s was shorthanded, coming at 11: 22 to give the Wings a 2-1 lead.

Defensive miscues on the part of the Leafs helped result in the goals.

DeKeyser scored on a quick shot at 5: 22 on a play that made Roman Polak look foolish. The Leafs defenceman went for a hit and came up only with air, giving DeKeyser a great opportunity that wasn’t wasted.

When Daley scored six minutes later for Detroit’s sixth shorthanded goal of the season ( tying it for the NHL lead), it was partly because of a poor decision by Jake Gardiner, who gave Daley an open lane as the Wings entered the zone on a 2- on-1 break. Daley went high on McElhinney’s blocker side to score his first goal as a Wing after signing in Motown as a free agent this past summer.

It was the third shorthanded goal allowed this season by the Leafs, one of three NHL teams prior to Friday which had not scored a shorthanded goal in 201718.

During the course of the middle period, the Wings, who did not play on Thursday night, found their legs against what appeared to be a tired Leafs team.

The Leafs were solid in the first period, scoring the only goal and outshooting the Wings 12-7.

After Dominic Moore won a faceoff to the right of Howard, Borgman fired a shot from the point. The puck appeared to deflect off a body before getting past Howard at 1: 58. The goal was Borgman’s third of the season and first in 19 games, as he had not scored since Nov. 4 during a game in St. Louis.

McElhinney was tested in the opening minute when he turned aside a shot by Gustav Nyquist.

Babcock made one change in the lineup among his forwards, inserting Kasperi Kapanen in place of Josh Leivo.