Maple Leafs 4, Jets 3 (SO)
Joffrey Lupul scored twice in regulation and struck again in the shootout as the Toronto Maple Leafs completed a sensational season-opening homestand with a 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night.
Lupul put Toronto ahead in the second round of the sudden-death format, flicking a wrist shot over Ondrej Pavelec's glove hand from in close. After James Reimer stopped Alexander Burmistrov, Maple Leafs rookie Matt Frattin ended things with a hard shot that beat Pavelec to the glove side.
Phil Kessel added a goal and two assists for Toronto – giving him a league-best 12 points in five games – as the Maple Leafs secured nine out of a possible 10 points on the homestand.
After rookie Mark Scheifele's first NHL goal put the Jets up 3-1 through two periods, Lupul's second goal of the game closed the gap 7:28 into the third period. With the Leafs on a power play, the veteran forward fired a shot toward the goal that deflected off defenseman Tobias Enstrom's stick and through Pavelec's legs.
Toronto struck again with the man advantage just 27 seconds later. Dion Phaneuf fed Kessel on the edge of the left circle and he wired it past Pavelec for his league-best seventh goal of the season.
Winnipeg opened the scoring with its first power-play goal of the season at 9:49 of the first. Dustin Byfuglien dropped the puck back to Enstrom, who blasted a slap shot from the edge of the blue line past Reimer.
Lupul evened things less than two minutes later, one-timing a Kessel feed past Pavelec's right pad and off the camera stationed in the middle of the net. Cleanup crews spent the next several minutes scraping up glass shards from the shattered lens.