3 Takeaways - Leafs at Blackhawks - 10/7/18

LEAFS CLIMB OUT OF 2-GOAL HOLE IN FIRST THANKS TO TWO QUICK GOALS FROM KAPANEN, MATTHEWS
1. The Leafs were playing the second of two games on back-to-back nights, and they were taking on a surprisingly tough Blackhawks squad that's started the regular season 2-0-0. Chicago continued their strong play in early in the first period of Sunday's tilt with Toronto, scoring the first two goals of the night - both within a three-minute span halfway through the first period - to put the Leafs in a significant hole.
However, the Buds moved rapidly to erase the Hawks' advantage, getting two goals from the unfamiliar duo of centre Austin Matthews and Kasperi Kapanen. The Finnish winger was first to strike (at the 14:09 of the first frame), when he took control of a perfect fipped-up pass from Matthews, split the Hawk's 'D' and wound up on a breakaway against Chicago's Cam Ward:

    Video: TOR@CHI: Kapanen beats Ward with quick wrister  

    That goal, which came at 14:09 of the first, was Kapanen's first of the season, and Matthews earned his second assist on it. And only 34 seconds later, the same two players combined to tie the score:  

    Video: TOR@CHI: Matthews scores off Kapanen's sweet feed  

    On this scoring play, Kapanen, did some yeoman's work to pick up the puck behind the net of Chicago's Ward, got the puck out to Matthews using a backhanded pass, and Matthews fired it quickly into the Hawks net for his fourth goal of the season and to make it a 2-2 game .

TAVARES ROARS IN MIDDLE FRAME, SCORING TWICE TO GIVE TORONTO LEAD ENTERING THIRD
2. Centre John Tavares is stiil feeling out the systems of head coach Mike Babcock and linemates Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman, but he's still a terrific player even as he adjusts. That much was clear in the second period, when he opened and closed the scoring in the frame to give Toronto a 4-3 advantage entering the second intermission.

    Tavares' first goal of the came at 3:56 of the second:  

    Video: TOR@CHI: Tavares scores from the doorstep<br>Tavares was the beneficiary of a fortunate bounce when a shot from D-man Morgan Rielly careened through traffic and right to him at the side of Ward's net. A player of Tavares' caliber doesn't miss fro there, and Tavares didn't, scoring his second of the year at 3:56. Chicago's John Hayden tied the score again approximately one minute later, but Tavares scored again precisely two minutes after Hayden's goal to put the visting Leaf back in front 4-3:

This time, Tavares and the Leafs were on a power play. He won the faceoff draw, and deflected the shot by Marner past Ward for his second goal of the evening, his third goal of the season, and a 4-3 advantage at the 7:37 mark of the frame. That would be the last goal of the second, but it wasn't the last gam of the night. And that's an understatement.
LEAFS GO GOAL-FOR-GOAL IN WILD THIRD PERIOD, WIN EARLY ON RIELLY'S OVERTIME GAME-WINNER
3. Five goals were scored in the third, but only two came from Toronto. The Hawks opened the scoring 2:20 into the frame, but Tavares scored his third goal (and first hat trick as a Leaf) at the 9:29 mark to restore the Buds' one-goal advantage:

    Video: TOR@CHI: Tavares scores high short side for hat trick<br>That 5-4 score looked as if it were going to hold up as the game-winner in the dying seconds of regulation time, but Hawks star Patrick Kane scored with 1:24 remaining to knot the score at five goals apiece. Overtime then looked like a distinct possibility, but 20 seconds after Kane scored, Matthews netted his second of the night and fifth of the season:<br>That go-ahead goal looked like the game-winner, but nope, Kane had other ideas. Kane's goal came only 55 seconds after his previous goal in the third, and with only 29 seconds left in regulation time, it held up as the last goal scored before overtime.<br>Unfortunately for all the Hawks fans at United Center, 3-on-3 OT was short-lived, as Rielly snapped a shot past Ward from the top of the circle to win it for the Leafs at the 19-second mark and register their first road victory of the season.  

    Video: TOR@CHI: Rielly nets OT winner for the Maple Leafs<br>With Toronto scheduled to play three straight road games this week, it was a good win and an underscoring of the resilience head coach Mike Babcock's teams have always had during his tenure in Toronto.