Penguins can't hold on
TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs weren’t ready to let their playoff dreams slip away.
Trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 after a lackluster opening 40 minutes Wednesday night, the players took an honest assessment of their situation during the intermission.
“I think we realized that it’s do or die,” forward Clarke MacArthur said.
The Maple Leafs responded with a rare third-period comeback. Phil Kessel tied it and set up Mikhail Grabovski’s winner just 42 seconds into overtime. The 3-2 victory over Pittsburgh moved Toronto within four points of eighth-place Carolina in the Eastern Conference standings.
“We came out storming in the third,” said James Reimer, who made 27 saves. “The guys deserved it. ... It was a real sweet victory for us, it was a good one to watch.”
There was little time for celebration as the team boarded a plane immediately after the game and flew to Philadelphia. They’ll face the conference-leading Philadelphia Flyers — and former teammate Kris Versteeg —tonight.
Nikolai Kulemin also scored for the Maple Leafs.
Matt Niskanen and Chris Conner replied for Pittsburgh.
Some bizarre scheduling saw the Penguins play their second consecutive game at Air Canada Centre. They returned to Pittsburgh for a couple days of practice after their 6-5 shootout victory over the Maple Leafs Saturday before coming back to Toronto.
This game was nowhere near as fast-paced as the first one. The strain of playing so many tight games appeared to be catching up with the Leafs, who managed just 10 shots in the first two periods.
“I would have liked to see us get to 3-1,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. “There was a couple rebound chances that looked to be pretty good opportunities from the bench. But we didn’t get there and really, going into the third period with a 2-1 lead, we need to find ways to be better in those situations and close out that game regardless of whether we got that third goal or not.”
Kessel scored for the eighth time in eight games by parking himself at the side of the goal and having Carl Gunnarsson’s point shot deflect in off him at 5:07 of the third period.
Grabovski’s winner came on a beautiful setup. Dion Phaneuf controlled the puck in the offensive zone during a line change before starting a bang-bang-bang passing play that ended with Kessel finding Grabovski alone in front.
Notes: The Penguins have lost 151 man-games to injury since Jan. 1. ... Paul Martin and Tyler Kennedy both returned to the Penguins’ lineup from injury. ... Pittsburgh was first overall in the Eastern Conference when Sidney Crosby sustained a concussion Jan. 5. It is 11-9-4 since.
