Opportunistic Leafs down Jets

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This article was published 02/01/2020 (2075 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Play recklessly against the Toronto Maple Leafs and be prepared to suffer the severe consequences.

The offensively wired Maple Leafs rarely struggle to score goals and they certainly had no difficulty Thursday night, registering a 6-3 triumph over the Jets in what closely resembled a home game for the visitors in Winnipeg’s downtown rink. 

Winnipeg showed plenty of offensive flash but was its own worst enemy against the red-hot Atlantic Division squad, which is 8-0-1 in its last nine outings and leads the NHL with 152 goals scored, six more than the Washington Capitals.

The Jets blasted goalie Frederik Anderson with a season-high 48 shots, including a career-high 13 by Patrik Laine, but the Danish netminder was sensational in posting his league-leading 21st win. He even earned a few “Freddie, Freddie” chants from the huge contingent of Leafs fans in the building.

Across the ice, however, Connor Hellebuyck wasn’t remotely up to the challenge. The Jets’ No. 1 goaltender, who allowed five goals on just 17 shots through two periods, looked off-balance and fought the puck until head coach Paul Maurice mercifully replaced him with Laurent Brossoit to begin the final period. Brossoit finished with 10 saves.

Hellebuyck hand-fed Toronto its first tally by William Nylander with a brutal giveaway behind the net, and then defenceman Luca Sbisa coughed up the puck to Kasperi Kapanen as the Leafs grabbed a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.

While the Jets contained the lethal Leafs for stretches, inevitably a missed check or soft goal would spoil that good work.

“We played some good hockey against that kind of team. We didn’t give up too many shots. They cracked the bar a couple of times. But we just made a couple of mistakes that cost us a couple of goals. But other than that I think we had some really good chances, put up a lot of shots, so we could easily had a couple more but three wasn’t enough tonight,” said Laine, who scored his 15th of the season during a wild second period.

“I think we made a couple bad reads defensively but I think we played some good defence at times and that kind of talent, we didn’t give them too much but, you know, gave them enough. They put up six and it’s hard to win when we give up six.”

The Jets pulled even in the middle frame, but defensive gaffes and penalties hurt them before the period was up as the Leafs headed to the locker room owning a 5-3 advantage.

Toronto upped its record to 23-14-5, while Winnipeg fell to 22-16-3 and has just one victory in its last five games. The two Canadian squads collide twice this season, with the rematch set for Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena.

“The first couple of shifts we were rolling and had some good jump. It was a roller-coaster ride and we tried to stay with it, we just couldn’t mount the third-period comeback we wanted,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler, noting the Leafs’ ability to do damage. “Yeah, very opportunistic.

“They had 11 shots over halfway through the game, so that’s a pretty good number. We had 30-something. I mean, great offensive team and no doubt the talent level on that team (but) they had 11 shots, that’s not bad. I think.”

Two of the NHL’s top-scoring teams produced what would most aptly be characterized as high-event hockey, captivating for the crowd but an evening that likely made Maurice and Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe wince with regularity.

Nylander opened the scoring with his 18th and has lit the lamp in five straight games. Winnipeg product Adam Brooks, playing just his third career NHL game, picked up his milestone first point when he grabbed the Hellebuyck giveaway and set up Nylander.

Maurice had a clear look at the miscue.

“There was a puck that was flat against the boards and he took his eye off it, that’s all. (Hellebuyck’s) trying to move it one way or the other. He stops it, looks for his outs, goes back to touch it, it’s flat against the boards, can’t get his tip on it and then we’re in a whole lot of trouble,” he said.

Sbisa has been a key find for the Jets since he joined the team in late October but was the goat on Kapanen’s 10th goal of the season midway through the period, fumbling the puck to the speedy Finn, who ripped a shot through Hellebuyck’s pads.

The Leafs also hit two posts during a couple of frantic sequences in the opening frame.

Who else but Kyle Connor to turn the tide, at least temporarily? The Jets winger scored on the power play 3:45 into the second period, his team-leading 21st goal and seventh in his last five games. Four minutes later, Laine beat Andersen from a ridiculously sharp angle on his ninth shot of the night.

At that moment, Winnipeg led 12-0 in shots in the period, but Toronto stung on each of its next two shots in a 35-second span for a two-goal lead and mammoth momentum shift. Travis Dermott batted in a rebound for his fourth goal and Peter Engvall added his fifth after Jason Spezza’s faceoff win.

“We had two tough turnovers there to make it 2-0. You like what you have, you don’t like the two that we gave up in the second. We wouldn’t be too excited about that,” said Maurice.

“We forced them into a bunch (of turnovers), they forced us into a bunch. They made more of what we gave them.”

Mark Scheifele’s hard wrister past Andersen, his 19th tally this season, with 7:12 left in the middle frame cut the visitors’ lead to 4-3. But the Jets’ penalty killers, ranked last in the NHL, yielded Mitch Marner’s 11th late in the period on a shot that went through Hellebuyck.

Nylander added his 19th in the third period — his eighth marker in his last seven games — after a nifty passing play by John Tavares and Alex Kerfoot.

The Jets begin a four-game road trip Saturday afternoon in St. Paul, Minn., against the Central Division-rival Wild and then do a mini-tour through the Atlantic, with matchups against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, the Leafs 48 hours later and the Boston Bruins on Thursday.  

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell