The Toronto Maple Leafs ended their three-game road trip through the Central Division the same way they started it, surrendering a lead late in the third period.
The Chicago Cubs ending their 71-year World Series drought was not the only cause for celebration in the city of big shoulders, as former Leaf Richard Panik scored with 1:28 left in regulation and Jonathan Toews and Artemi Panarin beat Frederik Andersen in the shootout to give the Blackhawks a 5-4 shootout victory at the United Center on Saturday night.
Artem Anisimov tallied twice and Tyler Motte also scored for Chicago. Panik, who was traded by Toronto for minor league forward Jeremy Morin on January 3, leads the NHL with six goals.
The loss obscured another impressive performance by the Leafs young forwards. William Nylander scored a pair of goals, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk added singles. Auston Matthews had a pair of assists and scored Toronto's only goal in the shootout, giving the 2016 top pick the club lead with eight points.
Unlike their first four games, Toronto did not score the opening goal. Calder Trophy winner Panarin showed why he won the award for the league’s best rookie, blowing past Nazem Kadri and setting up Anisimov for his third goal of the season 3:36 into the first period.
Chicago had the territorial advantage for most of the opening period, but Bozak’s deflection goal with 14 seconds left in the first gave the Leafs a shot in the arm going into the locker room.
Matthews has shown his goal scoring prowess with five goals, but the young phenom displayed his playmaking ability, making a cross-ice pass on the power play to set up Nylander for his first goal midway through the middle frame.
Motte and van Riemsdyk exchanged goals late in the second and the combo of Matthews and Nylander struck again early in the third to increase the Leafs lead to 4-2, but as with previous road games in Ottawa, Winnipeg and Minnesota, the club’s defense and goaltending could not play shutdown hockey and prevent a late comeback.
Anisimov narrowed the lead to 4-3, converting a bad Andersen rebound with 2:28 left in regulation. Exactly one minute later, Panik found the puck in a mad scramble around the Toronto net and beat the Leafs goaltender to tie the game.
"It's a tough situation. I thought that we had ourselves in a good situation there in the third and we let it slip away. It's something we need to get fixed." defenseman Morgan Rielly said after the game.
Overtime was decidedly one-sided in favor of the Hawks, who spent half of the five-minute period on the power play, but the Leafs weathered the storm to force the shootout.
"I thought we made two mistakes down the stretch, I didn't think we were on our heels at all. The pass off the goalie was an easy box out for us and we lost numbers down low on the 6-on-5 goal there so those are things we can easily correct." head coach Mike Babcock said following the club's third straight loss. "I think the big thing here is we played one at home and four on the road, if I'm not mistaken. We've managed to get points on the road, we could have won every game we've played in."
Toronto returns to Air Canada Center on Tuesday to face the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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