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

TORONTO — Kent Johnson scored his second aim of the sport at 3:26 of additional time to provide the Columbus Blue Jackets a 6-5 victory over Toronto on Thursday night time after the Maple Leafs overcame a five-goal deficit in the third interval.

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

The Blue Jackets are the primary crew in NHL historical past to win after surrendering a five-goal 3rd-period deficit, in line with ESPN Stats and Information analysis. Columbus can also be the sixth crew in NHL historical past to win after surrendering a five-goal lead at any level, and the primary to take action since 1992.

“I’m going to go through my emotions,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent mentioned. “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 ultimate two objectives to interrupt a tie for the NHL lead with 23. William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Jake McCabe additionally scored and Ilya Samsonov stopped 29 photographs to assist Toronto run its factors streak to eight at 5-0-3.

“We’ve been a resilient group all season, it’s a credit to the guys,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe mentioned. “[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 began Toronto’s comeback at 38 seconds of the third, scoring his 14th on a one-timer from Matthews. Marner scored a reasonably aim at 3:49, taking a go from John Tavares, placing the puck between his legs and beating Merzlikins between the legs for his twelfth,

McCabe made it a two-goal sport on an influence play with 5:39 remaining, firing in a slap shot from the purpose for his his first of the season.

Matthews scored on a one-timer from Nylander that trickled in with 1:15 remaining, then netted one other with 44.4 seconds left on a one-timer from Nylander. Johnson wired residence a wrist shot in the additional interval.

“We’ve got to be ready to play,” Matthews mentioned. “Just a lot of the detail stuff wasn’t in the first (period). The second wasn’t maybe as bad as the score portrayed but all of their chances went in and none of ours did.”

Laine opened the scoring for Columbus 6:19 into the primary interval. Johnson despatched in a backhand go from behind the aim after Max Domi‘s giveaway, and Laine beat Samsonov to the glove aspect. Johnson doubled the lead with 8:04 left in the primary and Danforth hopped in on the motion 8:16 into the second interval. Chinakhov made it a 4-0 with 9:15 left in the second, and Gaudreau linked with 5:41 remaining in the interval.

Toronto ahead Ryan Reaves was down for a bit as play was halted simply earlier than the halfway mark of the opening interval. He left the ice with some help favoring his left leg and was dominated out due to a lower-body harm.

Reaves tried to corral a puck by the boards in Columbus’ zone and appeared to have misplaced his stability. His knees hit the boards first, together with his left one seemingly taking the brunt of the collision.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.