The Toronto Maple Leafs got off on the wrong foot in the first installment of the Battle of Ontario, starting slow against the provincial rival Ottawa Senators and falling short in a 3-2 loss at the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, ON on Thursday, but of greater concern for Toronto is the status of goalie Petr Mrazek, who left the game after the second period with a groin injury.
Mrazek faced 26 shots through two periods, but had difficulty getting back to his feet after a left pad save at the end of the middle frame. Jack Campbell replaced Mrazek for the third and Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe had no update on the goalie’s status after the game.
“It’s too bad you never want to see that on anybody, and I went through it last year and he really battled for us in the second period, so many great saves.” Campbell said after the game.
The Leafs bombarded Sens goalie Anton Forsberg with 48 shots, but it was Ottawa that broke through with three first period goals from Chris Tierney, Tyler Ennis and Alex Formenton. After a scoreless second, the Leafs narrowed the deficit to one with power play goals from Jason Spezza and William Nylander, but could not draw even in the final 10 minutes.
“It’s not ideal being down three goals. I think we wanted to start a lot better, they came out with a lot of energy. We knew coming onto the road of a back-to-back we’d need to play a smart game and get ourselves involved early and we didn’t execute as well as we wanted to.” Leafs captain John Tavares said after the game. “We seemed to get our game going for periods at a time and then think we lost it during other periods. We fought hard until the end but unfortunately didn’t get the last one in.”
The sluggish starts for Toronto have to be a concern after two games, but the narrative coming out of the loss is the status of Mrazek, who played only 12 games due to a thumb injury last season with Carolina.
The Leafs had Friday off after games on consecutive nights, which means no update on Mrazek’s status until Saturday morning, but it is expected that goalie Michael Hutchinson will be called up from the American Hockey League to back up Campbell for the rematch against Ottawa.
Mrazek was brought in as a free agent to lighten Campbell’s workload, but with the possibility of him being out week-to-week, it will put pressure on the Leafs starter to play more than expected, the team’s defense to play more sound in their own end and on Hutchinson to be an efficient backup.
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