Appleton breaks tie late, Red Wings recover to top Maple Leafs

TORONTO -- Mason Appleton broke a tie with 45 seconds remaining in the third period, and the Detroit Red Wings recovered to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.

After Ben Chiarot’s shot from the point was blocked by Auston Matthews, Appleton got to the rebound and shot over Anthony Stolarz’s blocker from just above the left face-off dot.

“We weren’t near as good as we were the other night…,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “We couldn’t get ahead at all, we were always chasing the game as they were the other night. They were a quicker, harder, faster team. We were the slower team. Goaltending was huge obviously. Talbot had a superior effort between the pipes to give us even a chance to find some points. But then the resilience. We gave up a two-goal lead. We didn’t quit. We didn’t look real polished but we didn’t quit and that’s a good sign.”

Dylan Larkin and James van Riemsdyk scored, and Cam Talbot made 38 saves for the Red Wings (2-1-0), who won 6-3 against the Maple Leafs on Saturday, in which Talbot also started and made 20 saves.

Talbot has played two of the Red Wings three games so far this season after John Gibson, who was acquired in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks on June 28, allowed five goals on 13 shots in a 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Detroit’s season opener on Thursday.

“They’re probably not bringing in (Gibson) not to play so my mindset is just be ready for whatever opportunities I get to play and push each other,” Talbot said. I feel like I can still play at a high level and obviously so can he and that’s why we brought him in. I feel like this tandem is going to be really good for us and I feel like the guys are going to be really confident with whoever is in the net.”

Matthew Knies had a goal and an assist, Calle Jarnkrok scored, and Anthony Stolarz made 12 saves for the Maple Leafs (1-2-0), who have lost two in a row.

“It was a good solid 60 minutes in my opinion,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “I thought we controlled the play, plenty of opportunities to score. It didn’t go in enough, that’s the bottom line.”

Easton Cowan, who was selected No. 28 by Toronto in the 2023 NHL Draft, had one shot on goal in 14:05 of ice time in his NHL debut.

“It was a fun game to play in,” Cowan said. “Lots of family and friends here so that meant a lot. Obviously unfortunate we didn’t get the win there. I thought we played a pretty good game though, outshot them. I felt like we had a lot of chances. A little bit of adversity but we will battle through it.

“I felt good. I wasn’t really nervous at all. It was just another game. I felt good out there for sure.”

Toronto outshot Detroit 41-15.

“He (Talbot) played great,” Knies said. “A lot of props to him. He held them in it. We had some really good opportunities and he closed the door on a lot of us. He held their team together. We just have to be better at making some better puck plays in front of the net and we are bound to score more goals.”

Larkin put the Red Wings up 1-0 on the power play at 18:55 of the first period when he backhanded a loose puck at the top of the crease over Stolarz's glove during a net-mouth scramble.

Van Riemsdyk, who made his season debut for Detroit, put the Red Wings up 2-0 at 4:25 of the third period with a breakaway goal.

“If he showed us those wheels once, we are going to expect them every night now, he set the standard,” McLellan joked. “He did skate well.”

Knies cut it to 2-1 at 7:29 when he redirected a pass from Bobby McMann off his skate at the top of the goal crease.

Talbot made two of his best saves on Matthews at 5:17 to keep the Red Wings up 2-1. Matthews' initial shot from the left face-off dot was stopped and Talbot denied his rebound attempt immediately after with a left pad save.

“He’s looked good in practice,” McLellan said of Talbot. “I think he’s fresh right now and sometimes the more action for him the better. He sure looked big, he looked calm. Talk about game management, he got us some whistles down the stretch that we needed as well.”

Jarnkrok buried a wrist shot from the right circle to tie it 2-2 at 13:42. Knies sent a backhanded pass through the slot to Jarnkrok, who shot over Talbot’s blocker. The goal extended Jarnkrok’s season-opening goal streak to three games.

“I thought it was good game,” Matthews said. “That’s definitely more the style of play and the way we want to compete through 60 minutes, the type of game that we want to play. It was a good hockey game, I thought we played well. There’s going to be nights like that where you come up on the wrong side of it but I think there’s lots we can take from this game.”

NOTES: Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond left the game at 8:45 of the second period after taking a hit along the boards from Maple Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev. McLellan did not have an update after the game. “We’ll have to get him home and evaluate him,” McLellan said. “We will know more tomorrow.”