The Toronto Maple Leafs earned their third straight victory against Chicago on Saturday in spite of falling asleep and allowing the Hawks to fire 26 shots on goaltender James Reimer in the final 20 minutes. The Leafs continued that slumber until midway through Tuesday night’s contest against Arizona and were unable to come back in a 3-2 loss to the Coyotes at the Gila River Arena in Glendale.
Arizona built a 3-0 lead on goals from Sam Gagner, Martin Erat and Antoine Vermette due mostly to Toronto defensive errors and their inability to respond to some energetic Coyotes forechecking. A careless turnover by Jake Gardiner behind the net resulted in Gagner’s opening goal at 10:29 of the first period, Reimer’s inability to control a rebound led to Erat’s fourth of the season just over five minutes later and James van Riemsdyk’s blind pass gave Vermette an easy wraparound for the game winner.
“No explanation for that one other than it seemed we were in neutral and they were in third gear.… Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said following the game. “We were chasing and we finally got our legs underneath us as the hockey game went on and our power play scored a couple goals and gave us a chance, but our execution level was nowhere near where it needed to be.…
Combining the final 20 minutes on Saturday and the first half of the game on Tuesday, the Leafs had been outshot 46-12 by their opposition.
“We felt that this was a game that we could give ourselves the best chance to win with the type of game that we’ve been playing and we played it for 35 minutes tonight.… Carlyle said. “We weren’t very good in the first period and it cost us.…
Team captain Dion Phaneuf got the Leafs on the scoreboard midway through the second on a 4-on-3 power play and Cody Franson converted a loose puck on the man advantage to narrow the lead to 3-2 with 6:07 remaining in regulation, but goalie Mike Smith held onto the lead with a 28-save effort to break a personal three- game losing streak.
The Leafs coaching staff experiment of splitting up the top line ended after the opening 20 minutes, as van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Phil Kessel were reunited and played heavy minutes as the Leafs attempted to rally from a three goal deficit. Toronto received little offensive pressure from the other forward lines, who registered only six shots on the night.
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The defensive pairing of Gardiner and Stephane Robidas had a particularly rough night in Glendale, as both were on the ice for both Arizona goals in the first. Gardiner played 21:33 and Robidas played a season-low 11:48 TOI in the game, which resulted in extra shifts for Phaneuf, who played nearly 26 minutes for only the second time this year.
This increases the possibility of the return of Stuart Percy to the lineup in Colorado on Thursday in place of Gardiner or Robidas.
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