GAME RECAP: Maple Leafs 5, Oilers 2

EDMONTON, AB – John Tavares and Matias Maccelli scored 31 seconds apart on the power play in the third period, and Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves on Tuesday night as the Edmonton Oilers closed out their eight-game homestand at Rogers Place with a 5-2 defeat to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Jake Walman and Kasperi Kapanen each scored for the Oilers, who fought back twice to make it 2-2 less than five minutes into the final frame before the Maple Leafs scored back-to-back on an extended five-on-three power play to take a two-goal lead and ultimately secure their victory on Tuesday.

Matias Maccelli had two goals, while Matthew Knies had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs in their third straight victory.

Connor Ingram stopped 25 of 27 shots, with Toronto's third goal being an empty-netter from Bobby McMann.

The Oilers finished 4-4-0 on their eight-game homestand and will close out their schedule before the Olympic break with the Battle of Alberta on Wednesday.

"We haven't been playing our best, and obviously, playing eight games in a row at home, you'd like to win more games, but that's how it is now, and we can't do anything about it," Kasperi Kapanen said. "We just need to go into Calgary tomorrow and try to win two big points."

FIRST PERIOD

Drawing back in on Tuesday to face the Maple Leafs, Andrew Mangiapane brought the energy for the Oilers in the opening 20 minutes against his hometown team that saw Edmonton edge Toronto in shots by a 9-8 margin but fail to convert on the power play of a scoreless first period.

Toronto controlled the first few minutes and had an early chance for Max Domi, where Connor Ingram had to stretch across the crease to turn aside, while former Oiler Troy Stecher looked steady in his first shift in his first trip back to Oil Country since being picked up off waivers by the Maple Leafs in November.

When the Oilers received their first shot and opportunity a few minutes later, Leon Draisaitl was stopped in his tracks on a point-blank chance in front by Anthony Stolarz after Kasperi Kapanen forced a turnover with a hard forecheck and found the German wide open. Jack Roslovic then missed an open net when Ty Emberson's shot was deflected and fell right onto his tape before he put it through the blue paint and out the other side.

Mangiapane was stopped up high by Stolarz on a three-on-two rush before Connor McDavid drew the game's first penalty at 9:00 after cutting towards Toronto'crease with Zach Hyman's feed on the zone entry and being tripped coming through by Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

On the man advantage, Stolarz made a stellar save on Hyman to keep it scoreless after Draisaitl found him wide open with a cross-crease pass.

A matchup as good as Oilers-Leafs is bound to see some animosity, and Mangiapane was keen to provide it with his pesky, in-your-face style of play, which led to a four-on-four when he snowed Stolarz and was mobbed by the goalie & his Maple Leafs' defenceman before the intermission.

SECOND PERIOD

The Maple Leafs responded quickly to restore their one-goal lead through Matthew Knies scored only nine seconds after Jake Walman equalized for the Oilers with under nine minutes left in the frame, making it 2-1 through 40 minutes following Matias Maccelli's deflection that opened the scoring.

Ingram made a blocker save to deny Bobby McMann on a breakaway after Evan Bouchard had his pocket picked at the blueline, but was bailed out beautifully by his netminder in the first minute of the frame to keep it scoreless.

When McDavid was clipped by Brandon Carlo in the neutral zone a few minutes later, the Toronto defenceman wound up paying for it later in the shift after being tracked down by Darnell Nurse and dropping the gloves for a heavy tilt that charged up the split crowd inside Rogers Place on Tuesday.

But the Maple Leafs were the ones who broke the deadlock after Ingram made a fantastic save on Maccelli on a two-on-one near the seven-minute mark before the puck came back up to the blueline and was fired back on goal by Jake McCabe to be deflected by Maccelli in the slot on the second attempt.

Stolarz was solid between the pipes for Toronto with 17 saves in the second period, including a standout glove save on McDavid's one-timer from the circle before the eight-minute mark of the frame, but the Toronto netminder couldn't do anything on Walman's blast a minute later that evened things up.

Walman let go of a heavy shot from the top of the circles that caught a piece of the post on its way through to beat Stolarz to score the equalizer, picking up his fifth goal of the season that was assisted by Roslovic and Samanski – the second of the young German's NHL career to give him his first point streak.

The Oilers' defensive core continues to have a heavy impact on Edmonton's offence this season after adding another tally from Walman, contributing to 35 of the team’s 191 goals, which ranks fifth in the NHL among defences behind only Columbus (41), Washington (38), Buffalo (37) and Colorado (36).

However, it took Toronto only nine seconds to re-take the lead after Ingram's rimmed pass was mishandled by Nurse, who couldn't see the puck after the official got in his way, before it bounced into the middle for Matthew Knies, who intercepted and slid it home to make it 2-1 for the Maple Leafs.

"It's a situation where we all need to do our individual jobs," Nurse said. "You can't point any fingers in any different directions. I was out there again, and I gotta be better in that department. I'm not gonna deflect [blame] anywhere else."

THIRD PERIOD

Kasperi Kapanen's equalizer 4:27 into the final frame was a thing of beauty, but the Finnish forward's sweet finish to make it 2-2 wound up only being a footnote after the Maple Leafs' power play came through twice on a five-on-three a few minutes later to lock up Toronto's lead.

"I feel like throughout the whole game, we had plenty of chances, and especially in the second period, I thought we were playing well," Kapanen said. "We honestly were the better team, and if you take a couple penalties and you give them a five-on-three for two minutes, they have such good players that you know it's probably going to end up in the back of the net."

Vasily Podkolzin dropped it to his linemate at the top of the Maple Leafs' zone before cutting to the inside to avoid the stick of Max Domi and firing the perfect shot into the top shelf over Stolarz's glove to tie things up with his fourth goal of the campaign.

Kapanen was Edmonton's eighth straight different scorer in their last three games, but the focus has been on how they can keep goals out of their net after allowing 22 goals over that stretch.

"Those bottom six guys, they've been competing hard and working hard, so eventually it's going to start going in for them," Kapanen said. "For some guys, it has been, so I think once we get that going and we get some guys scoring and then feeling good about themselves, obviously it's going to help. We just can't let in five, six, or seven goals per game; it's just too much. It's not the right way to win."

Just over two minutes later, the Oilers ran into penalty trouble with two infractions only six seconds apart when Matt Savoie was called for interfering with Troy Stecher before Mattias Janmark's errant stick chasing a loose puck into the neutral zone caught Auston Matthew up high as he lifted his stick.

"I felt like he was maybe holding on to me a little, but at the end of the day, it was a high stick and cost us the game," Janmark said.

That sent the Maple Leafs to an extended five-on-three for 1:54, where they scored twice in 31 seconds to take a two-goal lead on a deflected effort from John Tavares at the back post before Maccelli notched his second goal of the game to make it 4-2 for Toronto with 11:47 left in regulation.

"I'm not trying to score a goal. I'm out there trying to kill a penalty. I'm trying to win a stick battle. If I don't win that battle, he's going the other way. He's a good player. I tried to really bear down, and I felt like I was being held maybe a little, but I'm not going in there trying to high stick a guy. But at the end of the day, there are two minutes of five-on-three in a 2-2 game in the third, and it cost us the game, so I gotta try to avoid it."

Edmonton's penalty kill went 0-for-2 on Tuesday, with both goals coming in a half-minute stretch.

"We need to step up and get the kills, and we weren't able to do that," Darnell Nurse said. "That's the difference. At 2-2, everyone's trying to do the right thing, and we gotta keep chipping away at it and make sure it becomes a strong point for our team."

The Oilers scored twice last week with their net empty to come back and defeat the Sharks in overtime, but it wasn't meant to be on this occasion, as their attempt to get the extra attacker with a few minutes remaining led to Bobby McMann finishing the game off with an empty-netter in the final three minutes.

Edmonton finished their eight-game homestand with a 4-4-0 record and will conclude their pre-Olympic schedule tomorrow in Calgary.

"You want to have a better result than .500 at home, obviously," Nurse said. "There are adjustments that I think our team can make, and we had a. We have a big game against Calgary again tomorrow. We look forward to that, and we'll learn from this."