Blue Jackets beat Maple Leafs 6-5 in OT after blowing 5-goal lead in 3rd

Dec 14, 2023, 11:54 PM ET

TORONTO — Kent Johnson scored his second goal of the game at 3:26 of overtime to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a 6-5 victory over Toronto on Thursday night after the Maple Leafs overcame a five-goal deficit in the third period.

Patrik Laine, Justin Danforth, Yegor Chinakhov and Johnny Gaudreau also scored for Columbus and Elvis Merzlikins made 43 saves.

The Blue Jackets are the first team in NHL history to win after surrendering a five-goal 3rd-period deficit, according to ESPN Stats and Information research. Columbus is also the sixth team in NHL history to win after surrendering a five-goal lead at any point, and the first to do so since 1992.

“I’m going to go through my emotions,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. “I’m going to watch it, I don’t want to talk about … going into the details. We’re learning that third period thing. Found a way to win the game. Came here to get two points, we got two points.”

Auston Matthews scored Toronto’s final two goals to break a tie for the NHL lead with 23. William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Jake McCabe also scored and Ilya Samsonov stopped 29 shots to help Toronto run its points streak to eight at 5-0-3.

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“We’ve been a resilient group all season, it’s a credit to the guys,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “[We wanted to] give our fans something to feel good about in the third period, give ourselves something to be proud of [with] what we put forth in the third period.”

Nylander started Toronto’s comeback at 38 seconds of the third, scoring his 14th on a one-timer from Matthews. Marner scored a pretty goal at 3:49, taking a pass from John Tavares, putting the puck between his legs and beating Merzlikins between the legs for his 12th,

McCabe made it a two-goal game on a power play with 5:39 remaining, firing in a slap shot from the point for his his first of the season.

Matthews scored on a one-timer from Nylander that trickled in with 1:15 remaining, then netted another with 44.4…

Source link : https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39116833/blue-jackets-beat-maple-leafs-6-5-ot-blowing-5-goal-lead-3rd

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Publish date : 2023-12-15 05:00:39

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