Leafs come up short in 2-1 overtime loss, squandering Andersen 40-save night
TORONTO — Past the halfway point of the season and with their bye week behind them, the Toronto Maple Leafs have their eyes on the playoffs. The problem is that they can’t finish teams off in the final few minutes of a game.
Vince Dunn scored 1:43 into overtime to lead the St. Louis Blues past Toronto 2-1 on Tuesday. The loss wasted an impressive effort by Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen, who made 40 saves and was less than a minute away from a shutout.
“Sometimes it goes that way but you want to keep learning from it and keep moving forward. That’s the only thing we can do now,” said Andersen. “We’re going to go through stretches like this in a season, but I thought we’ve been good at closing out games early in the year and I think we’ve got to get back to being solid like that.”
It was the Maple Leafs’ first game back after the six-day bye week. Their last game was a 4-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 10 and before that they gave up a two-goal lead in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Jan. 8.