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Leafs turn the tables in comeback victory over Ottawa, Marlies AHL best |
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Seven months ago, the signing of Patrick Marleau was justified as an addition to provide experience and leadership to the young Toronto Maple Leafs.
With the club playing .500 hockey since the beginning of December and trailing 3-1 to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, the normally reserved veteran spoke to teammates during the second intermission.
“What he says is sometimes – I don't want to say it's not important – but it's the action of it.” Defenseman Connor Carrick said. “I think the message was ‘enough is enough’, we really need to execute for each other and make sure we're making positive plays.”
Toronto responded with three goals in just over six minutes, including Carrick’s game-winner at 8:58 of the third for a 4-3 comeback victory over the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, ON, which was their first win against their provincial rival in over a year.
Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner also scored and Jake Gardiner had three assists for the Leafs, who ended their four-game losing skid and registered their first regulation victory since December 28.
The Leafs were energetic and had the advantage in the opening period, taking the lead on Hyman’s eighth of the season, but rested on their laurels and the Sens jumped all over in the middle frame, as Erik Karlsson scored on the power play to tie it, Mike Hoffman put Ottawa in the lead and Tom Pyatt scored short-handed to put Toronto in a precarious position entering the third.
“(Marleau) and I talked when he got here and he said to me, 'If some nights I need to talk.' I think those things are important.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “That, to me, is what you want. You want your veteran guys who have done a lot of winning to have a stake in it and make you a better team. That's what you want if you're going to have success.”
A number of scoreless skids were ended on Saturday. Hyman’s goal was his first in 10 games, Matthews had gone pointless in four, Marner had not scored since the Leafs last regulation win in Arizona over three weeks ago and Nazem Kadri’s assist on Carrick’s winner was his first helper since November 24.
With Morgan Rielly a late scratch due to an arm injury suffered in Philadelphia on Thursday, Babcock relied heavily on the makeshift top pairing of Gardiner and veteran Ron Hainsey and spread out more minutes to Carrick, Roman Polak and rookies Travis Dermott and Andreas Borgman.
“Going into the game without [Rielly], without [Zaitsev], you look like you're pretty limited on the back end but I thought Dermott and Carrick had real good games for us,” Babcock said. “I thought [Borgman] was really physical (and) we got good contributions from those guys.”
Gardiner and Hainsey both saw over 24 minutes of ice time and were out for most of the final two minutes of regulation when Ottawa had an extra attacker.
Rielly’s status for the game against the red-hot Colorado Avalanche on Monday is up in the air, but Babcock considered it encouraging that his top defenseman took to the ice for the morning skate on Saturday.
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Somewhat lost in the Leafs recent struggles has been the successful run of the Toronto Marlies. The Marlies have the AHL's best record and won a club-record eighth straight victory with a 3-0 win over the Binghamton Devils on Saturday.
Andreas Johnsson, Jeremy Bracco and Jean Dupuy scored for Toronto and Calvin Pickard made 21 saves for his 13th victory and first shutout as a Marlie.
Johnsson continues to make a strong case along with Kasperi Kapanen for a spot on the NHL roster later this year or next season, as the 22-year-old winger has 29 points (17 goals, 12 assists) in 36 games, second to Ben Smith in club scoring.
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Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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