Toronto Maple Leafs forward Alexander Kerfoot, right, takes out New Jersey Devils defenceman Damon Severson during the second period in Toronto on Jan. 31, 2022.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The Maple Leafs flirted with disaster again but escaped to beat the New Jersey Devils 6-4 on Monday night at Scotiabank Arena.
Ilya Mikheyev scored the winner for Toronto with 3:04 left, Auston Matthews had three goals and Mitch Marner one and two assists in a second consecutive come-from-behind victory over a second-tier opponent that should not have been so hard.
The Devils came into the game with just five wins in 20 times as a visitor this season, and not at all since Jan. 2.
Yet they jumped out to 3-1 and 4-2 leads just as Detroit had on Saturday before succumbing in the third period.
Toronto scored five times in the third period without an answer on Saturday and on four occasions on Monday to improve to 28-10-3 during the 2021-2022 campaign.
The same two teams play again in New Jersey on Tuesday. Their next game after that is Feb. 7 on home ice against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ilya Mikheyev, right, celebrates his game-winning goal with teammate Alexander Kerfoot, centre, as New Jersey Devils goaltender Akira Schmid looks on.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Jack Campbell started in the net for Toronto but was pulled after allowing three goals on nine shots. Petr Mrazek replaced him and stopped 19 of 20 to earn the victory.
“I am glad we scored four goals and turned the game around,” Mrazek said. He had not expected to play but ended up with a win. “You have to be prepared and come to the rink ready to go in. You never know what is going to happen.”
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It took the Devils only 47 seconds to get on the scoreboard when left wing Pavel Zacha squeezed a wrist shot past Campbell and into the net. New Jersey then went up 2-0 on a tip-in by Jesper Boqvist off a hard shot by Colin White with 13:40 left in the first period.
Auston Matthews scored his first of three goals just 13 seconds later on a 30-foot wrist shot after being fed a pass by Mitch Marner. It was the first of two assists the latter had to along with a goal.
After that, former Maple Leaf Andreas Johnsson scored from on a 2 on 1 less than three minutes later to restore New Jersey’s two-goal advantage. The goal was Johnsson’s 11th overall but first in 22 games and it was the ninth and last shot that Campbell faced. He was yanked after that in favour of Mrazek.
Matthews then tipped in a cross-seam pass from Morgan Rielly to reduce the margin to 3-2 with 5:04 remaining before the first intermission. It was Matthews’s 27th goal and the 32nd assist for Rielly in 40 games. The hard-working defenceman has two goals and 21 assists over the last 18 contests.
New Jersey restored its two-goal lead when rookie right wing Nathan Bastian snapped a puck past Mrazek with 12:27 left in the second period.
Jason Spezza then brought the Maple Leafs to within 4-3 early in the third when he scored from in front of goalie Akira Schmid following a lovely pass from Alexander Kerfoot from behind the net.
Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly, right, cuts through the middle past New Jersey Devils defenceman Jonas Siegenthaler.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The 21-year-old Swiss goalie has gone 9-0-2 with Utica in the AHL this season but has struggled in his first taste of the NHL. He entered the game 0-4 with an .822 save percentage but turned in the best performance of his young career against Toronto. He had 27 saves in the loss.
Marner tied it at 4-4 with 6:36 left, his career-high sixth straight game with a goal. Matthews added an empty netter with 22 seconds for his fifth career hat trick.
“I think Mitch is just playing free and on instinct out there right now,” Matthews said. “It’s fun to watch.”
The Maple Leafs probably emerged from the game with a better outcome than was deserved. The same is true for the poor Devils, who have lost five in a row and nine of the last 11.
They are last among eight teams in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division. Four of their last five losses have been by one goal and Monday night they were beaten by two but the second was an empty netter.
“We are doing what we do best in the the third period,” Marner said. “We pursued the puck the whole time. We know we have to be better in the first 40 minutes on Tuesday night.”
The Maple Leafs schlepped through this one and got away with it, just as they had with Detroit. It is a long season --- we are only at the midway point – and there will be plenty of ups and downs.
They won the last two despite being lazy and sloppy. That is a plus, of course, but not a recipe for long-term success.
“We like that our team has fight in it and has the ability to come back,” Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Fortunately tonight there was enough time for us to chip away at the lead and get a chance to win.”
Keefe said he would wait until the morning to decide if Campbell or Mrazek would get the start on Tuesday in Newark, N.J.
Bet on Mrazek.
“I thought he stood tall and made a couple of good saves right after he went in,” Keefe said. “He gave us a chance to win.
“He did not allow the deficit to get beyond one and kept us in striking distance.”
At present, the Maple Leafs are not playing great. For the last two games they have barely played good enough to win. That is something, but what?