TORONTO (AP) – The Toronto Maple Leafs recovered from a three-goal deficit in the 3rd era and Auston Matthews scored on a forced play at 13:10 to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 on Friday night, tying the most productive. from five qualifying series to two wins each.
The Leafs scored three times in 3:34 to tie the score at the end of a game that Columbus and goalkeeper Elvis Merzlikins had largely controlled so far. On Thursday night, the Blue Jackets had recovered through three targets to nevertheless win in overtime.
This time, with Nick Foligno on the penalty for a questionable call of cause, Matthews beat Elvis Merzlikins from the right circle in an orderly current of John Tavares to take the series to a decisive fifth game on Sunday.
William Nylander, Tavares and Zach Hyman scored in the third to set up Matthews’ heroism. Frederik Andersen made 36 saves.
“Probably some of the craziest occasions I’ve ever seen, ” said Nylander about the return.
Cam Atkinson, Vladislav Gavrikov and Boone Jenner scored for Columbus, and Merzlikins, who in their first playoff game, recorded 49 saves.
Merzlikins and the Blue Jackets will continue rolling all the way to Toronto in the last 4 minutes of regulation.
Then Nylander put his stick on a puck that went through Merzlikins’ legs with 3:57 to play. Tavares connected from the slot 51 seconds later, and Hyman slid one into the left circle to tie 23 seconds after Toronto pulled the goalkeeper for an additional skater.
“We resurrected there for a while and discovered the way back,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “And here we go.”
Atkinson first received the Blue Jackets. Pierre-Luc Dubois took the record in the transition, raced to the territory of Toronto and made a pass to Atkinson for the tap-in to give Columbus a 3:58 lead in the game. Later in the first game, Merzlikins jumped on a loose disc a few inches from the line amid heavy traffic to prevent Toronto from tying him up.
Gavrikov was given his first playoff purpose when he fired a shot at Andersen to give Columbus a 2-0 lead at 4:40 at the time. Jenner scored another 5:42 on third after a loss of Toronto in the Columbus area, and the Blue Jackets had the game in hand.
“I’m not going to go on to dissect this, ” said Atkinson. “Obviously they looked for him more than we did. We’ll be able to spend Sunday.”
Marner had three assists for the Leafs and Matthews added a pair.
Matthews said the Leafs never lost their 3-0 composures defeated in the game.
“I think once we have one temporarily there, we just have to keep pushing and pressing, we have two and obviously we still have time, we still have a game,” Matthews said. “So we gathered everyone excited to give us a little extra boost.
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NOTE: Columbus’ defense, Zach Werenski, came off the bench with an injury in the third term. Array.. Dean Kukan of Columbus and Jason Spezza of Toronto went to the penalty spot for fighting at the time after Spezza hit Kukan in the head. .. Blue Jackets F Nathan Gerbe made his Columbus playoff debut in Emil Bemstrom’ position. Kukan, shaken by a blow at the time of the game, returned to the lineup in the position of Markus Nutivaara.Array.. Merzlikins, who started his first playoff game, had a hand on Atkinson’s purpose in the first half.
Following
A decisive fit five will take place on Sunday.
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