Maple Leafs Collapse in Vegas After a 3-0 Lead

The Maple Leafs collapse in Las Vegas was a wild one: Toronto stormed to a 3-0 lead in under nine minutes on Thursday night, then watched the Vegas Golden Knights claw back for a 4-3 shootout win. The Leafs still left T-Mobile Arena with a point, and they can thank one goalie for that.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 40 saves, and without him this would have been a blowout loss instead of a bonus point. According to NHL.com, Toronto (2-2-1) was playing its first road game of the season, and Vegas improved to 4-1-0 with its third straight win.

A dream start for Toronto

Jack Roslovic opened the scoring 34 seconds into the game, banking the puck off Adin Hill's pad from below the goal line. NHL.com notes it was the second-fastest goal to start a road opener in Maple Leafs history, behind only Stew Gavin's goal at 0:27 on Oct. 5, 1983, in Edmonton.

Easton Cowan made it 2-0 at 3:20, getting behind the defence and roofing a wrist shot on a breakaway. Nick Paul then deflected a Darren Raddysh one-timer at 8:37 to push it to 3-0. Hill looked rattled, and Vegas fans in the building went quiet.

How Vegas flipped the script

The turning point came late in the first period. Mark Stone cut the deficit to 3-1 at 17:36 with a slap shot above Bobrovsky's glove. Vegas coach Ryan Craig called it a big moment, saying his team started the second the same way it finished the first.

Brett Howden made it 3-2 at 1:12 of the second, driving to the far post to finish a Mitch Marner pass. Then Jack Eichel tied it 3-3 on a penalty shot at 3:58 after Morgan Rielly tripped him on a breakaway. Eichel now has a five-game point streak to open the season, with three goals and nine assists.

In the shootout, Braeden Bowman and Trevor Connelly scored for Vegas while Hill stopped four shooters. Connelly became the third Golden Knights rookie to score a game-deciding shootout goal, joining Alex Tuch and Paul Cotter, per NHL.com.

The Leafs are still hunting for chemistry

According to Sportsnet's Luke Fox on CityNews, Vegas outshot Toronto 21-8 in the second period and 11-4 in the third. Coach Jim Hiller used 10 different forward-line combinations at 5-on-5, and only two of them won their minutes territorially.

Veteran defenceman Chris Tanev was blunt about what went wrong. "You can't let teams like that start feeling it and get back into the game after we have a 3-0 lead," he said, adding that Toronto stopped playing direct and turned pucks over, which fed Vegas's transition game.

Hiller tried Gavin McKenna on Nick Paul's third line and flipped William Nylander onto Auston Matthews's top unit mid-game. "Some players have been pretty consistent night after night. But as for three at the same time, we're still looking for that," he said. Sportsnet points out the roster added eight new forwards over one crazy summer, so growing pains make sense.

Bobrovsky finally gets a standout night

Bobrovsky is still 0-2-1 and searching for his first win as a Maple Leaf, but this was his best night yet. "He got us a point. That's what great goalies do," Hiller said, adding Vegas could have taken three or four goals more. "We want to get a win for him badly," Tanev said.

There was also a sore spot. Sportsnet reports an aggressive interference hit by Jeremy Lauzon on Oliver Ekman-Larsson went uncalled, and the Leafs defenceman left the game hurt. There was no update on his health at the time of writing.

What's next for Toronto

The Leafs practised Friday in Vegas before flying to Denver to face the Avalanche on Saturday night. That is a tough test: Colorado hammered the winless Calgary Flames 7-3 on Thursday. Check our sports coverage for more on the early NHL season.

Early-season hockey is all vibes and small samples, but a team that coughs up a three-goal lead against the reigning Western Conference champions has real questions to answer. If Hiller finds stable lines soon, the Leafs collapse will look like a blip. If not, Bobrovsky can't steal a point every night.