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The Toronto Maple Leafs once again were the architects of their own demise, playing carelessly with the puck and surrendering goals early and late in periods to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 4-2 loss at Scotiabank Arena on Friday.
The evening began with the Hall of Fame ceremonies honoring Roberto Luongo, Riikka Sallinen, Herb Carnegie (Builder) and Swedish stars Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, and Daniel Alfredsson, but the appearance of Toronto Maple Leafs great Borje Salming, flanked by teammate and Hall of Famer Darryl Sittler and former Leaf captain Mats Sundin brought the crowd to their feet.
The game was a back-and-forth battle in which the Leafs took an early lead on an Zach Aston-Reese goal, but could not extend the lead on a pair of power plays. A pair of miscues by Justin Holl allowed Pittsburgh to take the lead, as Evgeni Malkin tied the game late in the first and big Russian blew by the Leafs defenseman to set up Jason Zucker for the go-ahead marker.
William Nylander tied the game late in the second on the man advantage, but once again Pittsburgh replied early in the third, as Brock McGinn beat Erik Kallgren through a screen. Once the Penguins took the lead, they smothered the Leafs attempts at tying the game, limiting Toronto to four shots in the final 20 minutes of regulation.
"I thought we had some really good portions in the second period. Some of the first period was okay. Not nearly as good as we would expect, and yet we were up 1-0.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “We got down in the third, and I thought it was a clinic by Pittsburgh in terms of how they defended. They made it hard. We were on the wall a lot. We couldn’t find our way through that. That is really the difference in the game.”
Keefe revealed after the club’s optional morning skate that Kallgren would go on back-to-back nights instead of starting Keith Petruzzelli. Matt Murray did take to the ice for the fourth straight day on Saturday, taking shots from Wayne Simmonds and Kyle Clifford, and the ramping up of activity would indicate that he is close to being ready, perhaps as soon as the Leafs rematch against the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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