After defeating the Montreal Canadiens in Marc Andre Fleury’s 500th career victory, the Blackhawks continued on their Canada tour. In Toronto, the Blackhawks trailed early to in the first only to rally in the third period before falling short.
1st Period
In the first period, the Blackhawks jumped out to the early lead. Jonathan Toews fired a shot past Peter Mrazek for his second goal of the season. Following the Toews goal, Riley Stillman committed his first of two consecutive penalties in the first period. The Blackhawks lead evaporated as Jonathan Tavares scored the equalizer less than a minute later.
After the Tavares goal, the Leafs’ offense got going with another power-play goal from William Nylander. The Nylander gave the Leafs their first lead of the game. Later in the period, Austin Matthews put another puck past Kevin Lankiken for three to one first-period lead.
Tavares, Nylander and Matthews all have goals in the first 15 minutes of this one. That’s NOT what you want to happen
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 12, 2021
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2nd Period
In the second period, The Blackhawks outshot the Leafs 14–3 in one of their best periods of the season. Despite outshooting Toronto by a significant margin, Leafs added to their lead with a goal from Pierre Engvall. The Blackhawks answered with a goal from Connor Murphy late in the period to cut the lead back to two goals. The difference thus far has to be the play of Mrazerk who has stopped a bunch of A plus chances.
You’ve got to be joking!! 😳#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/NgMSzMrkPt
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 12, 2021
Despite the fact that the Blackhawks still trailed by two goals, the momentum was clearly in their favor.
3rd Period:
In the third period, the Blackhawks continued to build off their momentum from the second period. The Blackhawks cut the lead to one goal with a goal from Dominik Kubalik. It was Kubalik’s first goal since December 2nd and his fifth goal the season.
The comeback continued with Jake McCabe getting the equalizer to knot the game at four. After tying the game, former Blackhawks forward and newly minted Maple Leafs’ hero, David Kampf ripped the Hawks heart out with a late third-period goal. The Blackhawks fall to the Leafs’ 5–4.
Analysis
Despite getting down early, the Blackhawks showed a lot of resilience coming back from a two-goal lead to eventually tie the game at four. The resiliency of the Blackhawks has to be credited to head coach Derek King. If the Blackhawks had played his game under Jeremy Colliton, this team would have folded like a lawn chair in the summer.
Johnathan Toews:
Toews scored his second goal of the season and his second in two games. Toews needs to get going with his goal-scoring to help this team continue to improve this season.
Dominik Kubalik:
Kubalik has been missing in action on the scoring front this season after scoring 17 goals last season. The Blackhawks need Kubalik and Toews to continue to score helps to elevate some of the pressure off of Alex Debrincat and Patrick Kane.
There are no moral victories in sports but the Blackhawks should not hold their heads down after their effort tonight.