Knowing what we know, seeing all we’ve seen, Sunday’s Maple Leafs game had the makings of a trademark home-team fold-up.

Toronto surged to an early 2-0 against the defending Stanley Cup champions, delighting a lively gathering at the Air Canada Centre. But after the Kings dominated the second period, the lead had evaporated. A little more than a minute into the third period, L.A.’s Marian Gaborik scored to make it 3-2 for the visitors.

In the past, such a squandered advantage might have spelled doom. In the past, maybe the superior Kings would have sensed their opponents’ fragility and stepped on their collective throat. In the past, maybe the Leafs wouldn’t have had an answer to the question: How do we stop the bleeding?

“In the past we’d face adversity like that and we’d have guys trying to say the right things. But it was almost like empty words,” Cody Franson, the Maple Leafs defenceman, said. “It was like our bench was deflated. We’d tighten up. We’d play not-confident hockey in those situations.”

So supporters of the blue and white can take it as another in a recent line of good signs that none of those things happened in Sunday’s game. Instead of deflating and tightening and losing confidence, the Leafs replied to L.A.’s challenge by playing a robust third period, tying the game 3-3 on a James van Riemsdyk power-play goal and winning 4-3 in a shootout thanks to Joffrey Lupul’s lone goal and James Reimer’s trio of shootout saves.

Never mind a collapse. The Leafs came hard with a counterattack. And in doing so they capped a remarkable weekend back-to-back that saw them take four of a possible four points from Detroit and L.A. while reeling off their ninth win in 11 games since that epochal 9-2 home loss to the Nashville Predators.

“I think that’s a testament to us finally maturing as a group,” Franson said. “We had a 2-0 lead, we gave it up, they got a couple of goals. And we stick with it.”

Are they for real? It’s still too early to tell. But performances like the Leafs put in on the weekend suggest we’re seeing something different from the local heroes than we’ve seen recently.

It was Toronto’s 20th home date in 30 games this season; no NHL team has played in their own building more often. The Leafs, to their credit, have taken advantage of the friendly confines — their 13 home wins lead the league, an awfully big number considering hockey geniuses like ex-Leafs coach Ron Wilson have characterized the alleged lack of atmosphere at the Air Canada Centre as the root of the Leafs’ problems. After Tuesday’s home game against the Ducks, mind you, the Leafs will play eight of their next nine on the road as their rink plays co-host to the world junior championship.

Toronto’s been respectable away from home so far this year, putting up a 5-2-3 record. But a season ago they were far worse, managing just 35 points in their 41 tries as a visitor, ultimately losing their final seven contests away from the Air Canada Centre.

“The road is going to get tough here as we go forward,” Randy Carlyle, the Leafs head coach, said.

For certain Leafs, the road looked rocky enough on Sunday night. Toronto’s centremen were outclassed on faceoffs; by the end of the second period they’d won just 13 of 36 draws — although the Leafs won 15 of 26 in the third period and overtime. In all, L.A. commanded 55 per cent in the circle.

“It was kind of hard to catch up when they started with the puck all the time,” Carlyle said.

There were other glaring weak spots. It was Leafs defenceman Jake Gardiner who allowed Justin Williams to outmuscle him to a bouncing puck and score the goal that got the Kings on the board, 2-1, late in the second period. It was Gardiner, too, who left the front of the net exposed when Gaborik put the Kings ahead 3-2 in the early moments of the third.

In other words, the Maple Leafs can’t wait to get Roman Polak back into the lineup in the coming days. Since it’s hard to imagine the Leafs demoting Korbinian Holzer — the dependable German would have to clear waivers to join the Marlies — it’s likely Toronto will carry seven defencemen during their coming road-heavy slate. That could also give Carlyle the option of banishing Gardiner for an educational tour of the press box, as he did for a couple of games early this season.

Still, all of that seems like nitpicking in the face of Toronto’s current prosperity. On Sunday night, when the team that’s won two of the past three Stanley Cups stepped on the gas, the Leafs responded with a surge of their own. They didn’t abandon their system. They didn’t fold. Two-and-a-half months into a six-month grind, maybe it’ll be looked back on as a milestone of sorts.

“I think we (said), ‘Stay calm, and keep doing the same thing,’ ” said Stephane Robidas, the Leafs defenceman new to the team this season.

Said Carlyle: “It seemed like we were running on empty in the second, but we seemed to get our game back going into the third period.”

Maybe the best sign of all for Leafs Nation is that the local heroes, at least some of them, are approaching their recent run of success with a certain humility that’s unfamiliar in these parts.

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“We’ve made the mistake of getting overconfident and we’re trying to be cautious of that,” Franson said. “Even while winning, we’re trying to be aware of the mistakes we are making that allow teams to get back into games or make us play defence for an extended period of time.”

This is what’s been lacking in the past -— an awareness that a high-scoring team’s inherent tendency to regularly abandon its defensive responsibility was a well-worn path to ruin. Suddenly there’s a feeling in some corners of the dressing room that that hard lesson has been learned. Still, knowing what we know, seeing what we’ve seen, we need to see more.

Said Carlyle: “We think this group’s got more to give.”