Pre-Game Notes:

This may be one of the most unique best-of-five series’ ever played in the NHL. Depending on who you ask and what side of the fence you sit on, you can say each team has either blown three-goal leads, or each team has mounted incredible three-goal comebacks. Both teams that came back from three down eventually won the game in overtime and that would probably be enough to make this an incredibly dramatic series. Only, that’s not where it ends. Through four games, there have been injuries to key players like Jake Muzzin and Zach Werenski. There may been goaltending changes in Columbus and potential last-minute roster changes in Toronto. There has been a yelling match between a coach and player who came back the next game to score a hat trick and, let’s not forget, the loser of Sunday’s Game 5 enters the Alexis Lafreniere sweepstakes. There winner goes on to play in the 2020 NHL playoffs. Just prior to puck drop, Chris Johnston of Sportsnet reported, “Andreas Johnsson is taking line rushes with Alexander Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev. It looks like he’ll replace Nick Robertson and play his first game since Feb. 13.”

Andreas Johnsson is taking line rushes with Alexander Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev.

It looks like he'll replace Nick Robertson and play his first game since Feb. 13.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) August 9, 2020

Game Notes:

The game started without a lot of action. The Maple Leafs had an edge in shots by 4-2 but it was the third shot by the Blue Jackets that landed as Zach Werenski sent what looked like a harmless shot from the blue line towards the net. It went off of Tyson Barrie and past Frederik Andersen. A misread by William Nylander who was playing center and often doesn’t, Nylander didn’t cover down low. The rest of the period was fairly uneventful with few shots on net. A post hit by John Tavares was as close as Toronto would come to evening up the score. Columbus had the edge in shot 7-6 at the end of the first. As the second period got underway, it appeared the Maple Leafs were going to need to pick up their urgency level. Through the first four minutes of the second, it was the Blue Jackets with the three best scoring chances of the period. Midway through the period, defenseman Tyson Barrie went down and was slow to get up. He skated off on his own accord and the Leafs can only hope it was nothing serious. Weresnki took a bad cross-checking penalty at the 12:16 mark of the second which would give Toronto an opportunity. They didn’t capitalize, but by the end of the second, Toronto had ramped things up and led on the shot clock by a tally of 19-15. Barrie didn’t return for the third period and the Maple Leafs were going to have to kill an early penalty. Halfway through the third, it was still 1-0 and the shot total 28-16 in favor of the Leafs.

Maple Leafs defenceman Tyson Barrie will not return to tonight’s game vs CBJ.

— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) August 10, 2020

The Maple Leafs down 1-0 fell asleep on Liam Foudy who walked in during a line change and put one past Andersen. Down 2-0, could the Leafs mount another comeback? The answer was, not this time. Foligno scored an empty-net goal to put it away. The Blue Jackets will move on and the Leafs will join the other eliminated teams in the Draft Lottery that will take place Monday at 6pm ET.  

Score
BLUE JACKETS	MAPLE LEAFS
3	–

 

Scoring Summary:

Period 1
	Goal	Assists
	6:29 – Zach Werenski (1)	Unassisted
Period 2 – No Scoring
Period 3
	Goal	Assists
	11:40 – Liam Foudy	Unassisted
	19:37 – Nick Foligno	Unassisted

Game Highlights: