MONTREAL – Because the clock ticked right down to zero, a half-empty Centre Bell erupted into cheers because the leftover Toronto Maple Leafs supporters who made the journey to Montreal celebrated a memorable comeback.
After trailing 3-0 on the finish of the primary interval, the guests exploded for seven unanswered objectives, together with one into an empty-net, sealing a 7-3 victory over the rival Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
Bobby McMann, Nicholas Robertson, William Nylander, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Steven Lorentz, Auston Matthews and David Kampf discovered the again of the web for Toronto (22-18-4), which maintained its one-point lead over the Florida Panthers atop the Atlantic Division.
Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine and Josh Anderson scored for Montreal (28-16-2).
A HISTORIC COMEBACK
The rivalry between Montreal and Toronto goes again nicely over a century, with the 2 golf equipment going through off for the primary time on Dec. 17, 1917. In that point, the Maple Leafs have received 335 of the 849 complete video games, however Saturday night time was simply the third time ever that they’d managed to overturn a 3-0 deficit and win.
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“It’s an awesome rivalry, everyone knows that, and we talked about this ‘simply going into one other sport’ however this isn’t simply one other sport, this can be a massive sport for each groups,” mentioned Toronto head coach Craig Berube.
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“We acquired our toes underneath us and began taking part in the best approach. This can be a nice comeback win for the fellows.”
The opposite two comebacks towards the Canadiens after being down 3-0 occurred in 1919 and 1969.
MONTREAL HUMBLED
Earlier than the sport towards Toronto, Montreal had been essentially the most in-form workforce within the league, boasting a report of 8-1-1 of their final 10 — a league-best — and had received 11 of their final 14. After the primary interval 3-0 lead, it appeared the high-flying Canadiens had been en path to firmly cementing themselves as contenders for a playoff spot.
“It was an odd sport. We had a tremendous first interval and even a reasonably good second the place we may have been main by much more,” mentioned head coach Martin St Louis. “You hit a submit they arrive proper again and rating, we didn’t do ourselves any favours by taking penalties, they usually acquired bounces to go their approach within the third. The sport slipped by way of our fingers within the third.”
Whereas the Canadiens have grown comfy taking part in in and successful one- or two-goal video games throughout their latest run of kind, that gave the impression to be once they had been at their most weak. Montreal had solely misplaced one sport after main through the first interval, which made the sudden collapse appear all of the extra out-of-character.
“They only capitalized on their probabilities, and we gave them a pair energy performs. We knew they had been going to come back out onerous within the second interval and that first shift within the third didn’t assist us in any respect,” mentioned Josh Anderson. “Neatest thing about it’s we play tomorrow (Sunday) night time.”
UP NEXT
Maple Leafs: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday.
Canadiens: Host the New York Rangers on Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 18, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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