Ineffective night for Matthews line helps tip Maple Leafs’ Game 5 fate

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Late on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena, Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews mentioned not looking in the rearview mirror.

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The Leafs have little choice but to look ahead to Game 6 in the Battle of Ontario on Thursday night in Ottawa after failing to put the Senators away in Game 5.

Still, the Leafs will have to review what happened in a 4-0 loss at Scotiabank Arena. They’re going to have little enjoyment in what they see, especially the Matthews line.

Instead of hoisting the club on their backs and leading the Leafs to victory, the Matthews trio helped sow seeds of large doubt in Leafs Nation in the loss.

It came to a head in the third period with the score 1-0 when Matthews, in attempting to pass to Mitch Marner, gave the puck away to Adam Gaudette during a Leafs power play. Gaudette and Dylan Cozens wheeled the other way, scoring on a 2-on-1 at 8:24. If the Leafs had any hope of rallying, the Sens’ second shorthanded goal in as many games killed it.

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“I just tried to find Mitchy up top, and I thought we drew them in,” Matthews said. “I didn’t see the guy there, and he picked it off. That’s on me. I have to make a better play.”

Good on Matthews for taking responsibility. And Leafs coach Craig Berube wasn’t going to let his top line — all three were on the ice for every Sens goal — off the hook.

In total, Matthews, Marner and Matthew Knies supplied 11 of the Leafs’ 29 shots on goal. They didn’t score on the power play either, but Berube had issues with the three at five-on-five.

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“Not enough speed through the neutral zone with that line and then (a lack of) creating things in the offensive zone off that,” Berube said. “They were just little bit late on things, and didn’t create enough stoppages in the offensive zone. It was one and done too much for me with that line in the offensive zone.”

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Part of the issue for the Leafs, and it could very well continue into Game 6, was not only the play of Senators goalie Linus Ullmark, but, as Berube said, the general lack of second chances.

There’s zero doubt that Ullmark should have plenty of confidence heading back home.

“I thought at times and stretches throughout the game we could have done a better job of getting more guys to the net and making it a little bit tougher on him, but he made some key saves when he had to,” Matthews said. “We’ll be better the next game and get some more bodies in front of him. This time of year, it’s greasy goals. It’s not the prettiest of things. So that’s the way you have to approach it.”

Should the Leafs really have to remind themselves of that at this point? No, of course not.

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After the Leafs lost in overtime in Game 4, there wasn’t much feeling in the group that a lot had to change for Toronto to close out the series in Game 5. There’s no way a similar line of thinking can apply to Game 6.

If it’s not a hungrier group of Leafs, and if the Matthews line doesn’t snap to attention, the chances are great that we’re going to be back in Toronto for Game 7 on Saturday.

“The forwards’ job is to get in front of the goalie,” Berube said. “We killed a lot of our opportunities, I thought, and probably more in the second period than any other period where we gained the back of the net.

“We had time, we come out, and we tried to force it into the crease area too much. We killed our momentum by doing that. We have to get in front of Ullmark.

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“We have to get shots through from the point on them, and we got to have traffic and find some second and third opportunities around the net.”

That won’t come easy for the Leafs, now that the Senators have won two in a row and are going to be buoyed by a raucous atmosphere at the Canadian Tire Centre.

As Marner said after the game, the Leafs knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Fine, then. Go set the example for your teammates. Make it harder on the Senators. The core is paid to make a difference in the post-season.

It hasn’t happened yet, but getting it right in Game 6 and sending the Leafs to the second round would be a start.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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