Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen clears the puck in front of his net during the first period.Chris Young
James van Riemsdyk, Curtis McElhinney and Mitch Marner brought the Toronto Maple Leafs back from the dead Wednesday night.
Van Riemsdyk scored twice in the third period to get them back in the game and Marner scored the decisive goal in the shootout for a 6-5 win at the Air Canada Centre. Backing them up was McElhinney, who stepped in when the Leafs' No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen was injured in the second period and played brilliantly in overtime and the shootout.
Also playing a role in the comeback was the penalty killing trio of Ron Hainsey, Roman Polak and Leo Komarov. They killed off a penalty in overtime that was the result of a Jake Gardiner brain cramp to keep a win out of the grasp of the Stars, who deserved better.
Van Riemsdyk's two third-period goals gave him the third hat trick of his NHL career as he tied the score 4-4 by the midway point of the period. It was van Riemsdyk's first hat trick since Nov. 15, 2016 against the Nashville Predators.
However, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, the big sticks for the Dallas Stars, brought the Stars back once again. This time, Benn and Seguin set up their right winger, Brett Ritchie, for the line's third goal of the game to give the visitors a 5-4 lead.
But the Leafs, who looked all but dead by the end of the second period, kept plugging. Patrick Marleau forced overtime with 15.3 seconds left in the third period with his 22nd goal of the season with McElhinney on the bench for an extra attacker.
The big concern right now is Andersen, who was apparently injured late in the first period when Leafs defenceman Roman Polak cross-checked Stars forward Alexander Radulov, who fell on Andersen. Both Polak and Radulov were given minor penalties. Benn and Radek Faksa scored for the Stars 1:35 apart during the four-on-four to tie the score 2-2 going into the second period.
Andersen kept playing but pulled himself midway through the second period. It is unclear if Andersen was to go to Buffalo with the team after the game, where the Leafs will play the Sabres on Thursday night. But Leafs head coach Mike Babcock thinks the injury is not serious although he claimed not to know anything more than it was an "upper-body" injury.
"It sure didn't seem like much," Babcock said. "He played after he got hurt so I don't know exactly."
When Babcock was asked if Andersen would make the trip to Buffalo, he said, "That's a great question. I don't know the answer."
As for McElhinney, who was pencilled in for the start in Buffalo, he will proceed as scheduled in the second of back-to-back games. "He wanted to be warmed up for tomorrow. He was going tomorrow anyway," Babcock said.
McElhinney, who allowed two goals on 15 shots, admitted the summons came as a surprise while he was fulfilling the usual backup goaltender's duty of keeping charts.
"I was sitting there doing my faceoffs," he said. "The next thing you know, they handed my gloves to me."
In that situation, McElhinney said, "the heart rate spikes. I think it would be interesting to see what it's like on a heart rate monitor. Once the first shot is taken you kind of settle in."
The win gave the 34-year-old veteran an 8-4-1 record in 14 appearances. He went into the game with a 2.20 goals-against average and a sparkling .931 save percentage, which is setting up as the best season of his career.
"Yeah, I feel very comfortable right now," McElhinney said. "Obviously we've got some goal support and that goes a long ways."
The Leafs received some luck to take a 2-0 lead with goals 35 seconds apart in the first period. But the good fortune dissipated quickly as the Stars took charge in the second period and built a 4-2 lead by the time it ended. Mind you, the Leafs took luck out of the equation with their egregious defensive work.
There was a glaring defensive miscue on every Dallas goal. By the end of the second period, in which the Stars outshot the Leafs 16-4 and held a 25-11 advantage in shot-attempts, the Leafs were in a shambles. Andersen was gone and Babcock was shuffling his lines and defence pairs in the hope someone would find a clue.
At first, the Leafs were better. Or, more accurately, lucky.
Less than five minutes into the game, Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen mishandled a long dump-in that came slowly off the end boards. He managed to knock it in front of his net, where Leafs centre Nazem Kadri was loitering without any attention from the Stars defence. Kadri knocked in the loose puck at 4:28 for his 27th goal of the season. It was also his third goal in as many shots against the Stars this season.
Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock, who saw his team lose 4-2 to the Montreal Canadiens the previous night, looked ready to explode. His mood was not helped by what happened 35 seconds later.
Once again, the puck was misplayed in front of the Dallas goal, as Lehtonen kicked out a rebound that eluded three Stars players. Leafs centre Tyler Bozak snapped the rebound at Lehtonen and he made another save but also kicked out another rebound that James van Riemsdyk turned into his 27th goal of the season and a 2-0 Toronto lead.
At that point, the Stars looked every bit the road-weary team playing the second of back-to-back games. But they quickly put themselves back into the game and it was their star pair of Seguin and Benn doing the damage, just as Babcock worried they would.
"There's not going to be a lot of time and space and the big guys [Seguin and Benn], I mean, they score," Babcock said after the morning skate. "They've flat-out got talent, they're big bodies, they're hard to handle around your net. It'll be a good test for us."
It was a test the Leafs failed with a capital F. The Stars tied the score during the four-on-four on goals from Benn and Radek Faska.
Then the Stars quickly established themselves as the better team in the second period. Seguin threw a long shot at Andersen, walked around Leafs defenceman Jake Gardiner with ease and scored on his own rebound.
Ten minutes later, with Andersen gone and Babcock shuffling his lines, Stars winger Devin Shore showed great patience in hanging on to the puck until the Leafs again forgot about the man in front, this time Remi Elie. He ripped a one-timer to give the visitors a 4-2 lead.
The Leafs came back with some life in the third period, though. Van Riemsdyk's put in his own rebound at 5:13 to raise his goals on the season to 28, best on the team, to cut the Dallas lead to 4-3. Then van Riemsdyk struck again five minutes later on the power play for the hat trick to tie the score.
Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews says recovering from his Feb. 22 shoulder injury is a gradual process. Matthews took part in his second straight full practice Tuesday, but continued to wear a red non-contact jersey.
The Canadian Press