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Rally covering up ills in win over Flyers; Leafs vs. Senators

March 16, 2019, 12:40 PM ET [1037 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs succeeded in not digging themselves a first period hole as they did in home losses to Tampa Bay and Chicago earlier this week.

They waited until the second period to do it.

Toronto surrendered four goals in the middle frame and trailed 5-2 before rallying for five straight goals in an exciting and sloppy 7-6 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers at Scotiabank Arena on Friday.



Auston Matthews and Jake Muzzin each scored twice, Patrick Marleau, Zach Hyman and Martin Marincin added singles in the Leafs comeback victory, which narrowed the gap with second place Boston to two points in the race for home-ice advantage.

It was once again a difficult night for Toronto defensively and for goalie Frederik Andersen, who had been pulled after allowing four early goals against the Lightning and Hawks and allowed six goals on 29 shots on Friday.

Flyers goals from Jakub Voracek and Radko Gudas came as a direct result of lost faceoffs by Auston Matthews in the defensive zone. James van Riemsdyk’s hat trick in his return to 40 Bay were a pair of deft deflections past the Leafs goalie and taking advantage of his inability to corral a loose puck, while Andersen yielded a juicy rebound on Shayne Gostisbehere’s tally.

“It seems like everything is going against me defensively right now. Even things that aren’t really dangerous find a way to be somewhat dangerous.” Andersen said after the game. “It’s a little frustrating but just got to fight through it and it will turn once I keep working.”



Toronto were able to take advantage of some equally sloppy defense and goaltending by Brian Elliott, who was beaten by a pair of Muzzin shots that cut the Philadelphia lead to 5-4 and by Marincin, who tied the game with his first goal of the season on a deflection.

Matthews put Toronto up for good, scoring after William Nylander did some good work behind the net controlling the puck and feeding it out front, and adding his second of the game, cashing in a rebound of an Andreas Johnsson shot.

“I thought we cheated for a few shifts right away there. I don’t know if that’s panic mode or whatever. We got away with doing it then just got back to working and playing hard and doing it right and in the end we won.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game.

Toronto will have little time to savor the victory over the Flyers, as they departed for Ottawa right after the game and will play the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

Babcock indicated that Garret Sparks will make the start in the second of back-to-back games. It is likely that the defensive rotation will continue against the Sens, with Igor Ozhiganov replacing Justin Holl on the bottom pairing.

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