Corey Perry scored the go-ahead goal in the second period and the visiting Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 on Monday night.
MacKenzie Entwistle, Tyler Johnson and Taylor Raddysh also scored for the Blackhawks, who had lost two of their first three games of the season. Andreas Athanasiou had two assists for Chicago.
Arvid Soderblom stopped 35 shots for the Blackhawks.
John Tavares scored for Toronto, which won its first two games of the season.
Joseph Woll, playing for the first time this season, made 27 saves for the Maple Leafs, who completed a three-game homestand to open the new campaign.
The Blackhawks had a 9-7 advantage in shots on goal in a scoreless first. Chicago’s Connor Murphy and Toronto’s Noah Gregor were given fighting majors at the 19:38 mark of the period.
The Blackhawks took a 1-0 lead at 2:59 of the second period on Entwistle’s goal from the low slot following a pair of defensive mistakes from Toronto.
Tavares tied the score from the high slot at 5:14 of the second after William Nylander’s slick drop pass.
Perry scored on a breakaway at 14:46 of the second after he was put in the clear by a long outlet pass from Alex Vlasic.
Johnson split the defense during a power play at 17:05 of the second to score his third goal of the season. Toronto’s Tyler Bertuzzi was serving a high-sticking penalty.
Chicago had a 22-19 edge in shots on goal after two periods.
The Maple Leafs dominated the early minutes of the third period, and they also killed a minor penalty, holding Chicago to zero shots during the power play.
It was then Toronto’s turn to go on the power play when Entwistle was called for high sticking at 11:52. But like the Blackhawks, the Leafs had no success on the man advantage.
Toronto removed Woll for an extra attacker with about four minutes to play. Soderblom made a big save on Tavares soon after.
Taylor Hall scored into an empty net at 19:04, but the goal was disallowed because the play was offside.
Auston Matthews had a goal called back for offside in the final seconds.
Raddysh then scored into an empty net.
–Field Level Media
