Leafs' victory another building block towards success As soon as Auston Matthews had the puck on his stick, the goal felt inevitable. Late in overtime against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night, the Maple Leafs centre ripped a perfect top-shelf snipe that lifted the Leafs 4-3 over Chicago and put Toronto at a perfect 3-0 on the season.

Kristen Shilton TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter Follow|Archive

TORONTO – As soon as Auston Matthews had the puck on his stick, the goal felt inevitable.

Late in overtime against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night, the Maple Leafs centre went charging into the offensive zone, tried to fake a pass and then ripped a perfect top-shelf snipe that lifted the Leafs 4-3 over Chicago and put Toronto at a perfect 3-0 on the season.

“This was a big game for us as far as who we were up against,” said Matthews. “This was a real hockey game for us tonight, and I thought we showed a lot of poise in being able to crawl back into it. It’s exactly the start we wanted. [Now] we want to keep it going.”

The Leafs now have 19 goals on the season, most by any team in franchise history through three games since the club’s inaugural 1917-18 campaign.

Toronto overcame a pair of two-goal deficits in regulation on Monday to set up Matthews’ overtime winner, showing impressive character against a Chicago team that had also opened the season with an undefeated record. The Blackhawks have had the type of success Toronto hopes to emulate, and the pressure to perform could account for their slow start in Monday’s matchup. Chicago jumped out to an early 2-0 lead by outworking the Leafs and playing tighter defensively throughout the first period.

That Toronto was able to respond with a dominant second period is another sign of the group’s blossoming maturity.

“I thought we pushed hard and I think that’s important,” said Mike Babcock. “We stayed with it pretty good and didn’t panic, just stayed the course. We stayed determined. We got a pretty deep group, so we were able to come at them pretty good.”

Once they began dictating the pace of the game through the second half, Matthews’ line with Zach Hyman and William Nylander began to shine. They had what was at the time the Leafs’ best shift of the game about halfway through the middle frame, drawing a penalty with their relentless cycle game and giving Toronto the momentum they’d been looking for.

Matthews and company finished with excellent possession numbers, all in excess of 76 per cent Corsi-for, while primarily facing Patrick Kane and linemates Artem Anisimov and Ryan Hartman, who were all below 20 per cent.

“Auston was really good. They’re good all the time,” Babcock said. “Hyman was a machine. Willy really skated. So that was a good line for us and Auston was determined. He was playing head-to-head against [Patrick] Kane all night and I thought he did a really nice job.”

As a group, the Leafs haven’t outwardly relished in comparisons between themselves and the Blackhawks, but they were less shy about admitting what Monday’s win meant to their growing confidence. As it was also the first game this season where the Leafs weren’t putting up circus numbers offensively, the whole experience feel closer to the "real" games Toronto will be in for the rest of the season.

“The first two games were a little wild, but this one we showed some character,” said Frederik Andersen. “We kept battling back, even though they got the insurance goal [early in the third period] and we kept coming after them. They’re a great team. We want to be in that conversation, knocking on the door and beating these kinds of teams throughout the season.”

It was easy to compartmentalize the Leafs’ first two victories of the season – by a margin of five and three goals respectively, for a total of 15 tallies – as a product of the early-season feeling out process around the league. But the Chicago game didn’t fit that pattern, and gives the Leafs a truer measure of themselves from which to continue building.

“I think the feeling in our room beforehand…before a team like that would come in here and you’d be hoping and now you think you have a chance,” said Babcock. “So it’s a different feeling. I think it was a good game for us.”

Takeaways

Bad Boys

Thirteen penalties were assessed in Monday’s game, the most of any tilt this season for the Leafs, with eight coming in the second period alone. Eight of those 13 infractions were for slashing, indicating how seriously the NHL is cracking down on the slash across the league; Toronto has been called for it six times already this season. The Leafs managed just one power play goal on their eight attempts, off a well-timed deflection from James van Riemsdyk’s skate past Anton Forsberg that tied the game late in the third. That brought Toronto’s total of man advantage goals to six on the year. Meanwhile their penalty kill remained rock solid, holding the Blackhawks to one goal on six attempts. The Leafs’ power play is operating at 37.5-per-cent success so far, tied for best in the league.

Brown Busts Out

While the Matthews line drew much of the attention, Connor Brown had a terrific game against the Blackhawks. He tallied his first points of the season – a goal and an assist – and his marker was another of the game’s important turning points for Toronto. After Richard Panik gave back the Blackhawks a two-goal lead eight minutes into the third, Brown closed the gap five minutes later with a tally that Babcock credited with sparking the Leafs again. It hasn’t been an easy transition for Brown going from a top-nine role to a fourth-line job, but as he’s done throughout his career, the 23-year-old continues to show he can thrive in every situation.

Balanced Buds

With an assist on Nikita Zaitsev’s second period goal, Calle Rosen notched his first point of the season and the first point of his NHL career. That leaves Eric Fehr as the lone Leafs skater without a point through three games (although he’s only played in two of those). For Zaitsev, Monday’s goal was his second since the season began; it took him 52 games a year ago to score his first two goals.

No backup blunder

When the Blackhawks’ revealed Forsberg would start for Chicago in place of starter Corey Crawford, it seemed like a curious move by Joel Quenneville. Granted the Blackhawks play near Crawford’s hometown of Montreal on Tuesday, but given the Leafs’ potent offence compared to that of the Canadiens (who have scored four goals in three games) it appeared Quenneville was taking a gamble. That didn’t turn out to be the case. Forsberg was solid for the Blackhawks in his first game of the regular season and just his second start in the last two seasons. The 24-year-old was a career 1-8 with the Columbus Blue Jackets going into Monday’s game, posting 4.02 goals-against average and .879 save percentage. He was part of the Blackhawks’ haul in the Artemi Panari-Brandon Saad trade last June and showed well in two preseason games which gave Quenneville the confidence to put him in even knowing how dangerous Toronto’s attack can be. Forsberg finished with 39 saves on 43 shots. As for Matthews’ game-winner? Even Andersen admitted, “Not a lot of guys are going to stop that puck in this league.”

At the other end, Andersen had a solid performance between the pipes, stopping 18 of 21 shots. It was the first time this season the Leafs haven’t ceded more than 30 shots on goal.