Nineteen seconds remained in the second period when San Jose committed the kind of mistake that rarely earns a highlight but can quietly decide a hockey game: too many men on the ice. Mason Marchment served the bench minor. Seven seconds later, Auston Matthews had tied Toronto on the power play.
That sequence became the hinge in the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Maple Leafs on Monday at Scotiabank Arena. San Jose did not allow Toronto a 5-on-5 goal. It still left with nothing because the Leafs converted twice with the man advantage, then added an empty-net goal in the third period.
The Sharks had built a useful foundation before the bench penalty. Marchment put San Jose ahead at 13:54 of the first period, with Tyler Toffoli credited with an assist. Toronto went through the first 40 minutes without scoring at even strength, and the final shot totals would remain close: Toronto finished with 32 to San Jose’s 31.
Then San Jose gave Toronto a fresh opening at the worst possible time. Matthews’ power-play goal at 19:48 erased the lead before intermission, leaving the Sharks to begin the third period in a tie rather than protecting a one-goal advantage. The timing mattered as much as the call itself.
A close road game was still intact, but San Jose had surrendered the last meaningful event of the period to Toronto’s power play.
The next damaging sequence arrived early in the third. Luca Cagnoni took a cross-checking minor at 3:37, and Gavin McKenna scored on the ensuing power play at 4:56 to put Toronto ahead 2-1. Matthews and William Nylander were credited with assists on McKenna’s goal.
San Jose had kept the Leafs from finishing at 5-on-5; its penalty kill then had to withstand Toronto’s most productive players twice in a game decided by one goal until the final minute.
That distinction matters when assessing Yaroslav Askarov. He stopped 29 of Toronto’s 31 shots before Nick Paul scored into the empty net at 19:20 of the third. The two shots that beat him produced power-play goals.
Paul’s goal came only after San Jose pulled its goaltender. Askarov kept the game within a single goal until he left for an extra attacker. The two power-play goals had been enough to reverse San Jose’s lead despite that long stretch of even-strength resistance.
Nor did Toronto simply overwhelm San Jose from start to finish. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 of 31 Sharks shots, and Toronto’s one-goal lead held until Paul’s empty-net goal. San Jose had enough defensive resistance to make the game uncomfortable, but it did not score again after Marchment’s first-period goal.
Once McKenna put the Leafs ahead, the Sharks needed one more breakthrough against Bobrovsky and never found it.