Mitchell Marner produced an impressive four-goal performance as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings 10-7 in a thrilling game on Saturday.
Marner, who has never scored a hat-trick in the National Hockey League, has scored six goals in his last two games.
The Torontonians thought they were on their way to victory at Little Cesars Arena after taking a seemingly indomitable 7-2 lead after 40 minutes of play.
However, the wings rolled up their sleeves and gradually tightened the difference to start the third half, and scored four goals within 3 minutes and 41 seconds.
Detroit’s fifth goal, by Joe Felino, knocked goalkeeper Jack Campbell out of the match. But the change did nothing: after a few seconds, Peter Mrazek succumbed to Michael Rasmussen and the Levs’ lead was only one goal ahead.
Ilya Mikheev hit the goal to score 8-6, but immediately fought the wings again to once again arouse doubt in the minds of visitors.
Then when they capitalized on a massive attack with a chance to draw the scorecard, Jeff Blashill’s men saw Ondrej Kase deliver a punch as they made it 9-7.
It was finally Marner who had the last laugh, as No. 16 of the Leafs completed a superb display of Michael Ponting for his fourth goal of the night and tenth for Toronto.
While Marner had six points, his streak partners Ponting (1-4) and Auston Matthews (1-3) had five and four points, respectively.
For the wings, Philip Hronck led the attack with one goal per night and four assists. Rookie Lucas Raymond scored a double and added a assist.
The Tampa Bay Lightning scored a 3-2 away win over the Nashville Predators at Nissan Stadium.
Fans at the Tennessee Titans celebrated early in the game when the Breeds took home a hard-hitting Tanner Ginott goal.
Lightning responded in the second period with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov nets. Stephen Stamkos gave his team a protection in the third half by scoring his 25th goal of the season.
Lightning 3 – Predators 2
Nashville didn’t give up as Philip Forsberg approached his team by touching the goal while playing hard. Andrei Vasilevskiy got the job done for the rest of the match, ending his night with 26 saves. Juuse Saros was a bit busier as he scored 33 shots into his net.
