Leafs proving to be road warriors
Overtime win over Lightning makes it five straight away from Air Canada Centre
TAMPA — Mike Babcock was counting on the NHL standings to motivate his Toronto Maple Leafs, in addition to having a shot at five straight road wins.
“We’re here,” the coach said with urgency before taking on the Lightning with a chance to get closer to a playoff spot. “I looked today, we’re right there with them, it’s a huge game for us that way. Take advantage.”
The Leafs took an unlikely twogoal lead despite early penalties, succumbed to the yips and won it 3-2 in overtime on a Nazem Kadri power play goal.
“Sometimes it’s just living right and going to church on Sunday,” Babcock said of improved results. “Sometimes it’s us actually getting better.”
Now, it’s home for the Centennial Classic outdoor game against the Detroit Red Wings on New Year’s Day at BMO Field.
Toronto was trying for a feat that sounded impossible a few weeks ago, back-to-back road wins for the second time in as many weeks. But Babcock insisted this was less than a true B2B as both teams played Wednesday, the Bolts coming back to beat the Canadiens, while his team edged the Panthers in a shootout.
That lingering elation of overcoming Carey Price and the Habs might explain the host team’s slow start as their power play looked awful and Toronto showed lots of zip when not in the box.
Antoine Bibeau made 25 saves to win his first NHL game in just his second start. He was rattled by Val Filppula ramming him in overtime, but it resulted in an the decisive extra time power play for the Leafs.
“Someone has to grab the opportunity,” Babcock said beforehand. “Anytime we give Freddy (Andersen) a night off, we have to expect to win. We have to find out a way to do that. Biebs is set up here for success. They played last night, so did we, it’s a good chance to get in there and have a swagger.”
First goals are taking on huge importance for the Leafs with Auston Matthews up to nine of them, eight coming in the last 16 games. Toronto has the league’s most first period goals and in games when any Leaf strikes first, their record is now 14-4-5.
As far as Matthews’ overall goal total, 18 puts him top five in the league, in a pack with fellow rookie Patrik Laine of the Jets though well behind Crosby’s 26.
That’s the payoff for Matthews ranking third in the league in shots on goal coming in (3.8 a game among those with at least 30 games). He shot high on his opening shift during a 2-on-1, but his bird dog, Zach Hyman, hunted down a puck off the draw and Matthews was able to drive a five-hole puck through Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The fourth straight regulation or shootout goal by a Leafs rookie was really the offensive highlight of a first period that saw Toronto take three minors and do the exact opposite of Babcock’s pre-game edict. But they escaped and ran their road penalty killing streak to 19 straight by the final period, worthy of the second best mark in the league.
After two early second period power plays produced nothing, a Nikita Zaitsev shot bounced to an open Tyler Bozak and the Leafs — briefly — were up two. But Brian Boyle, a handful for the Leafs all night, was given too much room and snapped the Amalie Arena to life.
Ondrej Palat scored the tying goal late in the second period. The teams played to a draw in the third, setting up Kadri’s OT winner.