Detroit Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin (71) scores the game-winning goal in overtime past Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll (60) at Scotiabank Arena. The Leafs have lost the first two games of their five-game home stand.Dan Hamilton/Reuters
Joseph Woll made 39 saves in bounceback effort, but Dylan Larkin scored the overtime winner as the Detroit Red Wings handed the Toronto Maple Leafs a 2-1 loss Wednesday to sweep the season series between the long-time rivals.
Rookie Easton Cowan turned over the puck in the Leafs zone, allowing Moritz Seider to tee up Larkin for the winner at 3:08 of the extra period as Toronto was handed a humbling loss in its playoff quest.
In the aftermath of Monday’s 6-3 stinker on home ice against Minnesota to open the team’s crucial five-game home stand, everyone involved with the Toronto Maple Leafs was saying the expected things Wednesday morning. After all, the team’s immediate need for points was even more keenly felt after results Tuesday caused the Leafs to slide even further away from playoff position.
“Huge game, obviously. I think all of them are,” head coach Craig Berube said. “I mean, if you look at this stretch we have here, you got to take a playoff-type approach, in my opinion, to every game.”
The requisite intensity that most would expect from a divisional matchup between two teams with decades of history was ratcheted up still further by the fact that Detroit had won the first three matchups between the teams this season, which partly accounted for the eight points separating the rivals in the standings.
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Having taken responsibility for Monday’s loss, only the second time in the past 14 games the team has failed to earn points from a contest – accumulating 21 points in that span – Berube’s players were only too happy to sing from the same hymn sheet.
“Kind of a one-off last game, and understanding the magnitude tonight, division rival, these points are crucial,” defenceman Troy Stecher said. “So big test.”
That sense of urgency seemingly carried on to the ice that evening, with Scott Laughton giving the home crowd something to cheer before many of them had even found their seats.
Less than five minutes had run off the clock when the checking centre redirected what appeared to be a misfired shot from Calle Jarnkrok past John Gibson for his seventh of the season.
Scott Laughton (24) got the Toronto Maple Leafs out to an early lead on Wednesday night, scoring on Detroit Red Wings goaltender John Gibson (36) less than five minutes into play at Scotiabank Arena.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Just as crucially, particularly after giving up five goals in his past two starts, Joseph Woll came to play early on, registering 14 saves in the first period, including a point-blank stop from J.T. Compher with the Red Wings on the power play to preserve the lead.
And when he couldn’t cover the net, his teammates stepped into the breach, with Brandon Carlo doing exactly that when Patrick Kane took aim at an unguarded cage with eight minutes remaining. The towering defenceman’s shinpads did most of the work, preventing the Detroit winger from moving just one point back of Mike Modano as the highest-scoring United States-born NHL player.
However, having conceded 22 goals in their last four games, the Leafs defence is the furthest thing from impregnable, and Detroit’s patience paid off with seconds remaining in the period.
Lucas Raymond led a break up the right-hand side, operating a give-and-go with Dylan Larkin, ultimately dropping a pass to Simon Edvinsson in the slot, and the blueliner made no mistake.
The first period was even more injurious for the Leafs when Oliver Ekman-Larsson, recently named to the Swedish Olympic team for next month’s Winter Games, left the bench after tangling with Raymond on his fifth shift of the evening. The team’s PR staff announced on X that the blueliner would not return to the game owing to a lower-body ailment.
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While those setbacks could have given Toronto’s players an excuse to drop their heads, the Leafs did precisely the opposite. In the second period, Berube’s team tightened up in their own end, restricting the Red Wings to just seven shots, while generating 14 of their own.
While none of them resulted in a goal, it wasn’t for lack of trying, as the Leafs went close on a pair of power plays. However, the closest they came was again through Laughton, but his penalty shot, awarded when he was hooked from behind, was a tame effort easily saved by Gibson with less than four minutes remaining in the stanza.
In the wake of the loss, the road ahead gets no easier for Berube’s team.
Toronto must now gird itself for the coming Marner mania, as former Leafs winger Mitchell Marner returns Friday for his first game at Scotiabank Arena since he orchestrated a sign-and-trade to Las Vegas in the off-season.
And two days after that it’s time for the NHL’s best team – the Colorado Avalanche – to pay a visit with Canadian Olympians Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar in tow, before the home stand wraps up on Tuesday with another divisional game in the shape of the Buffalo Sabres.