Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown tries to get to a rebound off of Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Oct. 23, 2017.John E. Sokolowski
It was a game that featured the NHL's best offensive unit against the outfit that has surrendered the fewest goals.
You knew something had to give.
In the end it was the high-octane offence of the Toronto Maple Leafs who would have their way against the Los Angeles Kings, muscling their way to a hair-raising 3-2 victory at Air Canada Centre Monday night.
"It's a big game," said Toronto forward Matt Martin, who scored his first goal of the season and was at his pesky best throughout. "That's one of the top teams in the league.
"I think there's a handful of teams that you consider contenders every single year over the last six-seven years and they're one of them."
The Leafs carried a 2-1 lead into the third in what was an entertaining, not to mention testy, affair.
And things got a bit crankier for the 19,000-plus fans on board when Mitch Marner, who broke out of the doldrums with his best game of the season, beat L.A. goaltender Jonathan Quick after a nice individual effort.
But the goal was disallowed on video review after it was determined that Martin interfered with Quick.
But the fan's anger soon turned to elation less than 30 seconds later when Patrick Marleau, skating through the crease, deflected a Morgan Rielly shot from the point past the L.A. goalie, his fourth of the season.
L.A. disputed this one as well, arguing that Marleau's stick was too high. But this time the shinny review gods smiled upon the blue and white and the goal stood up.
But L.A. wasn't done, and Trevor Lewis's shorthanded goal on a breakaway after a bad give away by Nikita Zaitsev at the 12:19 mark made for tense finish until Quick made the unwise decision to knock over Leo Komarov as he was passing in front with 2:05 remaining.
Quick was handed a roughing penalty and the Leafs were able to ride out the win. "It was not a smart play by him I think," Komarov said.
Martin opened the scoring in the first period for the Leafs who also got a goal from Tyler Bozak. Adrian Kempe added the other L.A. goal on Toronto netminder Frederik Andersen, who was solid in this one.
Martin also engaged Christian Folin in a spirited tussle in the opening frame that the Toronto player got the better of and earned both players five-minute fighting majors.
"We kind of talked a bit before the game that I'm just going to let him [Martin] be the animal he is in deep," said Marner, Martin's linemate. "It worked out."
After getting their cage rattled for just the second time this year in a 6-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators Saturday night in Ottawa, the Leafs knew coming into the game that a bounce-back effort against another quality opponent in the Kings would not be easy.
The Kings came into the game eyeing their fifth straight win, the only team in the NHL without a regulation loss this year through seven games.
In an effort to beef up the defensive play, the Leafs activated rough-and-tumble defender Roman Polak to the lineup for his first game after signing a one-year, $1.1-million (U.S) contract with the club over the weekend.
More than anything, the game was a contrast in styles with the Leafs heading in with a league-leading average of 4.62 goals a game while the Kings were the NHL's stingiest defensively, allowing just two goals an outing.
The Kings set the tone or this one early when L.A. forward Nic Dowd annihilated Dominic Moore of the Leafs with a molar-loosening bodycheck in the neutral zone.
The Leafs also liked what they saw with Marner, a 61-point player a year ago in a very good rookie campaign, who came into the game with just one goal and three assists in his first eight games.
He was demoted recently to the Leafs fourth line along with Martin and Moore which turned out to be Toronto's best unit against L.A. Marner chipping in with two helpers on the Leafs' first two goals.
"I just calmed down, realized that I was just kind of throwing away the puck, kind of playing when I came into training camp my very first time," Marner said. "I kind of realized that I just have to have more calmness with the puck."
Toronto opened the scoring in the first period, an offensive foray that was initiated by Marner, who raced down the right side and then in behind the L.A. net with the puck.
The centring feed wound up on the stick of Polak at the point and his slapper was deflected in front by Martin and the puck just eased over the red line past Quick for a 1-0 Toronto lead at the 5:46 mark.
The period concluded on a bit of a weird note after Quick appeared to be clipped in the head during some goal-mouth jostling and had to leave the game with 1:11 left, presumably to go through the league's concussion protocol.
That protocol lasted just more than half a minute.
After being replaced by Darcy Kuemper, Quick came back into goal at the next whistle, with just more than 34 seconds left to play.
Bozak scored on the power play for Toronto that gave the Leafs a brief 2-0 lead at the 14:44 mark of the second. But Kempe responded less than a minute later to make it a one-goal game once again.