The Toronto Maple Leafs failed to get the last laugh in either of their games against Mitch Marner and the Vegas Golden Knights, losing to them twice in eight days for a sweep of the season series. Marner was held off the board in the loss, but the rest of his team showed up and fended off a comeback attempt to win the game 6-3.

Head coach Craig Berube, who was sporting a gash on his forehead and a black eye after an apparent workout injury the day before, didn’t have a lot of positives to take away from the game. More than anything, he expressed frustration with his group for their struggles in terms of maintaining any sort of momentum after they brought the game within one goal.

“Third period, we gotta do better,” Berube told reporters after the game. “We gotta make a bigger push for that, you know? Didn’t like the power play at the end, didn’t like the play on the fifth goal at the end, things like that. We made mistakes there, you gotta have more. For me, the standard’s gotta be higher. We’re at home here. We’re not playing consistently enough with the urgency that’s needed.”

The Leafs kept the game within one for most of the third period with a chance to take even it up on their first power play of the game with seven minutes remaining, but failed to register a shot on goal with the man advantage. Vegas scored the dagger shortly afterwards.

“That’s what bothers me more than anything,” Berube said when asked about his team’s third period performance. “We got the momentum, and it doesn’t look like we carried the momentum into the third period. That’s what I’m talking about. This team played last night in Boston, we had an opportunity to really put the pressure on them here in the third period and carry the play for 20 minutes.”

Goaltender Anthony Stolarz’s performance was a forgettable one on paper, having allowed five goals on 30 shots, but Berube refused to put much of the blame on him after his first start in over two months.

“He was fine,” Berube said. “He probably wants the third one back with a tough rebound, but I don’t think there’s much he could have done in any of the goals. I thought he looked more comfortable as the game went along, and that’s normal. He’s been out a long time.”

The Maple Leafs will look to shelve this performance and get back in the win column with yet another juggernaut of a test against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday afternoon.

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