The Canadian Press
Kyle Cicerella
TORONTO—Toronto coach Mike Babcock knew his team was in trouble once they had to climb out of an early hole.
Rookie Joonas Korpisalo made 41 saves, and Boone Jenner opened the scoring in the first period, as the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets held on for a 3-1 win over the Maple Leafs last night.
Jenner’s goal proved costly for the Leafs, who rarely are able to come from behind to earn two points.
Toronto (16-18-7) now has won just seven of the 27 games its given up the first goal in this season and is 1-12-3 when trailing after 20 minutes.
“Catch-up hockey is losing hockey,” said Babcock.
“Their goaltender was good but we need to score first so we don’t have to chase the game,” he stressed.
“You don’t make the same plays because you’re pressing.
“The way we executed in the first, I just didn’t think we were as good as we could have been,” Babcock added.
Columbus didn’t register its first shot on net until the 7:03 mark, and the Leafs held a 10-8 advantage heading into intermission.
But Toronto failed to create any serious danger for Korpisalo and was held scoreless on three power-play chances.
“We got a lot of shots on net but not a lot of second chances,” noted winger Brad Boyes.
“They blocked a lot of shots and boxed us out pretty well.”
Jenner put Columbus (16-25-4) ahead and Toronto in danger at 15:08 when he tipped a Seth Jones point shot from the high slot past James Reimer.
Korpisalo was forced to make two big saves midway through the second period—first on a point shot from Dion Phaneuf that took a deflection and then another on Peter Holland on a one-timer from between the face-off dots.
The 21-year-old Finnish goalie’s efforts went a long way for his club when Alexander Wennberg made it 2-0 at 16:17.
Reimer stopped Justin Falk’s point shot but couldn’t control the rebound, and Wennberg was able to put it home on the backhand.
“It was right there and I thought I corralled it around his legs, but it ended up beside me,” noted Reimer.
“Somehow it got free, it’s too bad.”
Boyes finally was able to get Toronto on the board late in the third with Reimer pulled for an extra attacker.
But Brandon Dubinsky added an empty-net goal for the Blue Jackets, who snapped a four-game losing skid despite playing in the second night of back-to-back outings.
“Back-to-backs are part of the NHL schedule and quite honestly, sometimes in the season you want to get back playing,” noted Columbus coach John Tortorella.
“It’s something we’ve talked about because we play a lot of back-to-backs,” he added.
“That’s part of the league so we try not to let it affect us in our thinking.”
Reimer stopped 19-of-21 shots for Toronto, which has just two goals in its past three games—all losses.
“You look at two of the three we’ve lost, we had a good chance to win so you just keep on trudging,” Reimer reasoned.
Before Boyes’ scored at 17:33 of the third, the Leafs had gone 127 minutes, 27 seconds without a goal.
Their power play also is just 2-for-27 in their last eight games.
Toronto next heads to Chicago tomorrow to face the Blackhawks.
Elsewhere in the NHL, Calgary blanked Florida 6-0, Anaheim beat Ottawa 4-1, and Philadelphia edged Boston 3-2.
