03/31/26 12:19:00
Printable Page
03/31 00:14 CDT John Tavares scores with 5 seconds left in OT to lift Maple
Leafs to 5-4 comeback win over Ducks
John Tavares scores with 5 seconds left in OT to lift Maple Leafs to 5-4
comeback win over Ducks
By MIKE DiGIOVANNA
Associated Press
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) --- John Tavares redirected a shot from Morgan Rielly into
the net with five seconds left in overtime to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a
5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Anaheim Ducks in a fight-marred game
Monday night.
The Leafs overcame a 3-1 deficit with three goals in the third period,
including Rielly's snap shot from the high slot that beat Anaheim goalie Ville
Husso stick-side to give Toronto a 4-3 lead with three minutes left in
regulation.
But Leo Carlsson, who hobbled to the locker room after taking a hard hit and
falling to the ice in the first minute of the third, gathered a loose puck near
the left circle and flicked a shot past Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz to make
it 4-4 with 1:39 left.
Tavares added a first-period goal, and Stolarz stopped 28 of 32 shots for
Toronto, which took the ice about 1 hours after general manager Brad
Treliving was fired near the end of his third season, with the Maple Leafs on
the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier scored in the first 10 minutes, and John Carlson
scored his first goal for the Ducks. Gauthier, who leads the Pacific
Division-leading Ducks with 38 goals and 65 points, suffered an upper-body
injury on a cross-check late in the first and did not return. Husso had 22
saves.
Ducks captain Radko Gudas, slowed by a lower-body injury, insisted on playing
in the rematch of a March 12 game in which his knee-on-knee hit on Auston
Matthews led to a season-ending injury for the Toronto captain and a five-game
suspension for Gudas.
It took three seconds for the Leafs to exact some revenge, Toronto forward Max
Domi and Gudas dropping the gloves and exchanging punches as soon as the puck
dropped.
That set the tone for a hard-hitting game that featured a combined 85 penalty
minutes, numerous scuffles and game misconducts incurred by Toronto's Michael
Pezzetta and Domi in the second.
Up Next
Ducks: At San Jose on Wednesday.
Maple Leafs: At San Jose on Thursday .
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
|
