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The Toronto Maple Leafs did what good teams do in the opening 20 minutes against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday, jumping on the short-handed and struggling club, pelting backup Laurent Brossoit with 16 shots and taking a 3-1 lead on goals from Auston Matthews, Dominic Moore and Matt Martin.
Unfortunately, the Leafs continue to be a team that puzzlingly have trouble putting a 60-minute effort together on a consistent basis. Toronto surrendered the lead twice, but were bailed out by Edmonton’s self-inflicted wounds in a 6-4 victory at Rogers Place.
It was good night for the Leafs fourth line of Martin, Moore and William Nylander, who each scored a goal and a particularly bad night for defensemen Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev, who were bystanders on the first two Edmonton goals.
Connor McDavid tied the game late in the second with a tip in of a Kris Russell point shot, but Erik Gryba’s boarding penalty on James van Riemsdyk gave the Leafs a power play moments later and Nylander scored to put Toronto ahead.
Russell was a central figure in the third, as the veteran defenseman fired a one-timer under the crossbar past Frederik Andersen to tie the game, but with 65 seconds left in regulation, in attempting to clear the puck out of the defensive zone, Russell spun and fired the puck into his own net.
“The puck just came off the goalie, I just tried to pressure (Russell) to try and get a secondary opportunity and just lift his stick and I think he panicked a little bit. Nazem Kadri said after the game. “I had no idea what happened originally. I just saw the goal light on and the puck behind him, I kind of figured that’s what happened, but wasn’t 100 percent sure and obviously a fortunate bounce for us, but two points is two points.…
Andersen was strong on the night, making 41 saves for his 15th victory of the season and it is expected that he will be in goal for the final game of the Western Canada road swing against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.
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