Feisty Reimer sparks Leafs out of skid James Reimer earned a victory that had been eluding him since November as the Maple Leafs beat the Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night. As TSN senior hockey reporter Frank Seravalli explains, it took some good old fashioned punches to help set the tone for the Toronto netminder.

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

PHILADELPHIA — James Reimer had enough.

Flyers forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare threw him a late jab after a save and Reimer came up flying. Once Roman Polak wrestled Bellemare to the ice, Reimer wailed away with punches.

Reimer’s counterpart, Steve Mason, waited patiently at the far blue line - just in case.

And upstairs at the Wells Fargo Center, Flyers GM Ron Hextall stood up in his box, while visions of Felix Potvin perhaps danced in his head.

“I felt I got a pretty good bump in the first and I got bumped a few times in the past couple games,” Reimer said. “So I guess there just comes a time when you have to kind of set the tone and just let everyone know that you don’t want to get bumped anymore.”

It was a temporary taste of old-time hockey and a rare public display of feistiness from the normally serene Reimer.

For Mike Babcock, the fact Reimer was able to maintain his composure among that commotion and in the face of a long losing streak was the latest indicator we’re seeing the Reimer of November who made a case to be the Maple Leafs netminder of the future.

Reimer stopped 31 of 33 shots - including a game-preserving stop on a sliding Wayne Simmonds rebound attempt in the final three minutes - to halt Toronto’s losing skid at five games.

“I thought (Reimer) was good tonight. They had some quality chances, there were tipped pucks that didn’t look like chances,” Babcock said. “To me, that’s a real sign of a guy feeling good about himself, is when you’re calm and it doesn’t lead to more pucks that are bouncing all over the place.”

Since returning from injury on Dec. 29 against the New York Islanders, Reimer has compiled a .930 save percentage (120-for-129) in five appearances. Tuesday was Reimer’s first win to show for it - and his first win overall since Nov. 20, breaking an 0-5-1 run (with one no-decision).

Reimer, 27, is now less than two percentage points back of the Flyers’ Michal Neuwirth (.936) for the league lead in save percentage among minutes qualifiers. His save percentage for the season is .9344 - and Reimer has been consistent on both sides of a month-long spell on the injury list.

Against the Flyers, his two blemishes were a five-hole goal off the rush to Shayne Gostisbehere and a back-door play from Matt Read off a Martin Marincin breakdown.

Reimer kept the Maple Leafs in it early, despite an 11-1 shots-against barrage. Those 10 or 13 minutes of the first period were some of the worst Toronto has looked under Babcock.

Not one to romanticize fighting in hockey, Babcock credited captain Dion Phaneuf’s fight with Flyers forward Brayden Schenn as the turning point. It was just the Maple Leafs’ sixth fight in 44 games this season.

“The fight was a big deal for us,” Babcock said. “They were taking it to us and outskating us. I thought we got competing and controlled a lot of the game from that point on. If you have people in your lineup that are capable of looking after themselves, I think that’s a real positive.”

Reimer may not be Potvin, but he acquitted himself well when push came to shove against the Flyers.

“We pride ourselves in our ability to fight through adversity and be character people,” Reimer said. “We want to be competitive character people. When things aren’t going your way, it’s easy to crater in a situation like that, but I thought we really dug in and didn’t let it affect us and kept on rolling.”

Loose Leafs

Matt Hunwick’s game-winner with eight seconds remaining marked not only his first goal as a Maple Leaf, but also the NHL’s sixth tie-breaking goal in the final 25 seconds of regulation this season, according to TSN’s Kevin Gibson ... Roman Polak’s first period goal was his first in more than a year (Jan. 15, 2015), a span of 63 games ... Joffrey Lupul scored for the first time in 12 games. It was also his first point since Dec. 21 ... Nazem Kadri now has 15 points in his last 18 games ... The Maple Leafs won 10 of 11 face-offs in the final 6:52 after Shayne Gostisbehere’s game-tying goal.

Quotable

Coach Mike Babcock on the Maple Leafs getting back in the win column:

“You go back and start looking at games and say ‘Gee, we could have won that one’ or ‘We could have got points in that one.’ That starts to get old and you have to get points to feel good about yourself. Suddenly, we will have much more energy (Wednesday) than we would have.”

Frank Seravalli can be reached at frank.seravalli@bellmedia.ca.