Head coach Sheldon Keefe didn’t like the effort his team showed in Monday night’s game against the Canadiens when they choked a late third-period lead.

Although it is the preseason at the end of the day, and these games don’t matter in the standings, they are still games where you want to clean up any mistakes so you can be prepared for the start of the regular season next week.

Tonight, the Maple Leafs were back in action to take on another divisional rival, this time the Detroit Red Wings, as they looked to clean up that late-game effort on Monday.

Tonight was the Maple Leafs vs. the Griffins (Detroit’s AHL team), and that was on display in the early going.

The fourth line of Holmberg-Kampf-Reaves hemmed the Red Wings in their zone for a bit on their first shift of the game. While almost scoring on their first shift, the fourth line drew a penalty and put Toronto on the early power play.

However, barely five seconds into the man advantage, Auston Matthews took a goalie interference penalty and gave the fans some four-on-four hockey just two and a half minutes into the game.

Although the power-play would’ve been better, the Maple Leafs got on the board four-on-four with a little play between Marner and Nylander.

Just filthy stuff from Nylander.

Soon after scoring the opening goal, Detroit’s Nate Danielson cuts in front of the Maple Leafs’ net and tips one home to tie the game at one, and they didn’t stop there. Simon Benoit took a weak interference penalty to put the Red Wings back on the power play, and Jonatan Berggren, just seconds into the man advantage, rips one over Samsonov’s shoulder to take the lead.

After the Red Wings had their little push to try and extend the lead even more, the Maple Leafs strung together some good shifts that eventually helped draw some penalties and put them back on the power play late in the first period.

After having their first power play negated due to a Matthews penalty, they make no mistake this time. Tavares finds Marner down low who finds a streaking Matthews in the slot, and he makes no mistake as he buries his first of the preseason to tie the game.

 

The Maple Leafs came out of intermission and started the second period how they finished the first period. They were looking to carry that momentum and retake the lead after falling behind 2-1, and that’s what they did.

After Matthews tied the game late in the first, Toronto came out outshooting Detroit but couldn’t solve Lyon in the net. However, just before the midway point of the frame, McIsaac had a sloppy giveaway in his zone that led to a goal from Tyler Bertuzzi to give Toronto the lead again.

The lead for the Maple Leafs would only last roughly 10 minutes as Ilya Samsonov did his best McIsaac impression and gave away the puck behind his net. Detroit capitalized on his mistake and they tied the game back up.

 

 

Although the third period held both teams scoreless, Toronto continued to pour on the scoring chances to try and regain the lead after losing it twice tonight.

They outshot Detroit 14-3 in the final 20 minutes of regulation, but Alex Lyon had the answers for all of them as he kept this game tied at three.

Both teams would head into the overtime period tied at three.

 

After losing in overtime in their last game just seconds into the period, Sheldon Keefe elected to go with David Kampf instead of Auston Matthews to begin overtime with Mitch Marner, and it worked!

Since he opened the scoring, it was only fitting that he would score the last goal to win the game, and that’s what Nylander did for the fans in attendance as he helped pick up his team’s fourth win of the preseason and improve to 4-1-2.

 

 

The Toronto Maple Leafs are back in action Saturday night in Detroit to take on the Red Wings. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm ET/4:00 pm PT on TSN4.