Merry Christmas, kids.
In their first Next Gen game of the season, the Maple Leafs roared down the chimney and stuffed children’s stockings with a thrilling victory on Monday afternoon, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 8-6 in a wildly entertaining affair at Scotiabank Arena.
Follow the bouncing puck: The Leafs had an early 3-0 lead, gave up five goals in a row, were down 6-4 in the third period and then scored four in a row to take an improbable victory before a crowd of 19,176.
“New Year’s Eve, I think,” goaltender Frederik Andersen said when he was asked what he saw from his end as the Leafs mounted an otherwise unbelievable comeback. “Fireworks everywhere and it looked pretty. Incredible.”
A five-point night by Mitch Marner — tying his career high — was among the twinkling ornaments the Leafs put on their 11th win in 15 games under coach Sheldon Keefe.
Captain John Tavares set a team record when he had three points — two assists and a goal — in the opening five minutes 10 seconds, the quickest three points to start a game in Leafs history.
It was the Leafs’ first eight-goal game since Dec. 19, 2017, when they beat Carolina 8-1 in a similar afternoon game in Toronto.
Toronto enters the Christmas break with 44 points, entrenching them in second place in the Atlantic Division, and turkey dinner suddenly will taste a lot better on Wednesday.
Marner and Auston Matthews, playing on a line with Zach Hyman, were the catalysts as the Hurricanes’ two-goal lead evaporated.
A span of 59 seconds, starting at 11:01 of the third, sent the Leafs into the break with a cup of cheer and no lumps of coal.
Matthews made like Marner and hit No. 16 with a cross-ice spinorama pass, with Marner one-timing a shot past Carolina goalie Petr Mrazek.
At 11:54, Marner spotted Tyson Barrie in the slot and it was 6-6 when Barrie moved to his backhand to beat Mrazek.
Six seconds after the faceoff, Marner scored again. Marner’s ability to anticipate the next play has few equals in the National Hockey League, and so it was that Marner leapt from the circle, intercepted defenceman Trevor van Riemsdyk’s pass to Jake Gardiner and swept in on Mrazek, scoring on a forehand deke.
“Our adrenaline is pumping, our hearts are pumping, you’re fired up,” Marner said of the outburst. “The first one was a great pass by Matty, the second one a great play by Barrie to find that open spot and make that move. The third one I jumped through and saw their D-man have it, saw their other D-man folding out, and tried to get it. Lucky enough, I picked it off, got down the ice and was able to score.”
Lucky? We beg to differ, Mitch.
On goals by Jason Spezza, William Nylander and Tavares early in the first, the Leafs appeared to be well on their way.
But when Tavares chased starter James Reimer — the ex-Leaf was gone in favour of Mrazek after allowing three goals on seven shots — the Hurricanes recovered and took over.
Goals by Brock McGinn (shorthanded) and Martin Necas in the first period cut the Leafs lead to one heading into the intermission. Carolina picked up the theme in the second — getting three from Necas, Erik Haula and Andrei Svechnikov in a span of 64 seconds starting at 15:09 — as it took advantage of several Leafs defensive miscues to go up 5-3.
Matthews stemmed the flow at 2:35 of the third with his 24th goal; Haula scored his second at 5:58, and the air was sucked out of the building again.
But wait. Marner and Matthews took over. Pierre Engvall scored into an empty net with 1:40 remaining.
The Leafs’ comeback came 24 hours after the Toronto Raptors stunned the Dallas Mavericks, rallying from a 23-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win.
So, yes indeed, Merry Christmas from your friends at MLSE.
“Guys just believe in themselves,” Tavares said. “I think it’s huge. But I think when we move forward we know a lot of (the manner in which the Leafs won) wasn’t the recipe for the success in the long term. You have to find ways to win. It’s not always pretty.”
Keefe had no trouble peering at the victory in the bigger picture.
“We need wins, we need points,” Keefe said. “You give up the lead and the nature some of the goals (against), you don’t feel great about them.
“But we can’t forget about the good things that we did. We scored seven plus an empty netter and we had a terrific start against a very good team that we knew was going to come back.
“I think it’s part of our growth and trying to figure things out. That’s partially the reason why I didn’t call a timeout in that second period. It was a good time for our team to sort themselves out. I don’t really know in that second period that we did, but we found a way and our best players made big time plays.”
The Leafs are off until Friday night, when they take on the Devils in New Jersey.
They’re going to enjoy the break. No reason that Leafs Nation, with the way Keefe has this team going, shouldn’t either.
tkoshan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/koshtorontosun
