Maple Leafs, Erik Kallgren salvage a point from early goalie gaffes – Toronto Sun

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On First Responders Night at Scotiabank Arena, with their goaltending in dire distress, the Maple Leafs called on Erik Kallgren.

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Then they dialled in their offence in the third period to erase a three-goal Arizona lead, before having to settle for a point in Thursday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Arizona Coyotes. But in lauding Kallgren for coming in cold to his first NHL action, coach Sheldon Keefe had to acknowledge the hole in the game’s most vital position, so close to the trade deadline and the start of playoffs.

After learning Jack Campbell would miss two weeks or more with a rib injury, Keefe handed the keys to Petr Mrazek, who gave up two early bad goals and four on 12 shots. With four or more goals against the last five games, Toronto is in its worst defensive slide since Mike Babcock was relieved as coach.

Not that Keefe’s team is danger of missing the playoffs, but this goes far beyond the ability of Auston Matthews and others to score their way out of trouble.

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“Today was a great opportunity for Petr, so it’s disappointing,” Keefe said. “We have confidence he’s going to find himself, but my concern continues to be the team that plays in front of him.”

However, their collective confidence took a hit after falling behind three. And when Kallgren came in and made some saves, Alex Kerfoot, Matthews and William Nylander revved up, hit the scoreboard, Nylander with an OT breakaway chance to win it. Kallgren made 10 saves, a couple in the extra frame, before Jakob Chychrun ended it on a 2-on-1 .

“I tried to keep my head clear and embrace the moment,” said Kallgren, a seventh-round pick of Arizona, an emergency call-up from the Marlies Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t know if my family was even watching (in Sweden), they were probably asleep.

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“The crowd was great and (Toronto’s) fourth goal was the loudest I’ve ever heard. They really pushed me on.”

Mrazek made just one stop before a routine wrister by Riley Nash that should’ve been blockered into the corner, somehow clanked the opposite way into the slot where a grateful Alex Galchenyuk swept it in. The second saw Phil Kessel slide it by two Leafs cross ice, where Chychrun fanned, but Mrazek for some reason was down, out and minus his stick as the puck tucked inside the near post.

Keefe challenged that goal on an offside, in part to give his team a chance to shake the cobwebs out on the ensuing power play. They didn’t even get into Arizona’s end in the middle period before Travis Boyd batted in an airborne rebound. The Leafs finally solved Scott Wedgewood on Pierre Engvall’s 10th of the year, but after Christian Fisher scored with little resistance from Mrazek or the Leafs, Keefe signalled for Kallgren.

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“That can’t happen,” Mrazek said of his shaky start. “Those saves are easy. I wasn’t sharp enough.

“I think my mentality is pretty good with these things. There are other games coming up.”

Now, it’s a question if Keefe has enough faith in Kallgren after just 30 minutes of NHL time to use him in Sunday’s outdoor Heritage Classic in Hamilton against the Sabres.

With the Marlies, Kallgren has been the farm team’s steadiest, with a record of 15-8-1 record and .904 save percentage. While Joseph Woll had a promising spurt of games at mid-season, he was hurt after returning to the farm. With Michael Hutchinson also used that’s five goalies employed so far, their most since 1983-84.

Both Mrazek and Campbell have had too many rough outings of late, Campbell with a lowly save percentage of .882 since early January after he was picked for the NHL all-star game.

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Keefe had decided pre-game to break up John Tavares and Nylander, in a series of changes affecting all three lines beneath Matthews, Michael Bunting and Mitch Marner. But it was back to a blender by the end of the evening. Sitting out a second straight game was veteran Jason Spezza.

“For me, we’ve had two lines who’ve been thriving, Matthews and David Kampf,” Keefe said. “And two other lines that have not been good. We need to be a team of four lines.

“Both (Tavares and Nylander) in their own way, have not played to their individual standard and when that happens the line will suffer. We need to shake things up. We sat (Spezza) the other night on a back-to-back when we had (Ondrej) Kase coming back. I fully expect him back after today.”

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That such a poor start came against the Coyotes, another non-playoff team, one stacked with ex-Leafs, made Thursday’s result harder to bear. Arizona could still finish last overall this season and continually suffer arena problems, but they have Leaf alumni Kessel, the recently traded Nick Ritchie and ex-Bay Streeters Galchenyuk, Boyd, Nash and defenceman Anton Stralman.

Kessel played just one shift on Tuesday in Detroit to keep his consecutive games streak alive, then hopped a private team charter to Phoenix to be with partner Sandra for the birth of their first child, Kapri. He jetted back in time for No. 957.

“Pretty crazy,” Kessel said of the adventure. “Her water broke before (the due date), a pretty tight time frame, but lucky I got home and it worked out.”

lhornby@postmedia.com