Leafs: Marner leads a special night for power play … and for the penalty killers

The Leafs’ top power-play unit came as advertised in Montreal on Wednesday night.

But while the highly lauded power play scored two goals, the club’s defence raised some concerns during a 5-3 win over the Canadiens.

Toronto iced its five-weapon unit for the first time this season, with forwards John Tavares, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri and defenceman Morgan Rielly.

Kadri scored with the man advantage late in the first period to tie the game 1-1, snapping home a wrist shot from the high slot after some playmaking by Marner and Matthews.

Matthews wired in a secondperiod power-play goal on a truly artful play in which he corralled a hard pass from Marner and, in the same motion, put a shot under the bar before Montreal goalie Carey Price could get across his crease.

Toronto scored a pair of unexpected goals to start the third, with Marner and Kasperi Kapa- nen scoring short-handed in the first 36 seconds. Marner finished off a four-point night by setting up Patrick Marleau for the Leafs’ fifth goal.

But for Leafs fans anxious to see this power play go to work, it was a feast for the eyes, especially on the Matthews goal.

The Leafs centre, now in his third season and looking to carry his game to higher levels, showed how strong and deft his hands are. Marner’s pass came across the ice with speed and force, since Marner had to thread it through two Montreal defenders. Matthews took it on his forehand, absorbing it with a slight backward move, then unleashed a shot under the crossbar, an amazing finish off such a hard pass.

Montreal opened the scoring on the power play, with Tomas Tatar getting an open lane to the net off the boards and snapping a shot past Frederik Andersen, low to the blocker side.

Brandan Gallagher, who had 31 goals a year ago, scored in the second to tie the score at 2-2.

Gallagher and Tatar both gained in-close position on the Leafs defence, which had a dubious first period and accounted for six of the seven Leaf turnovers in the frame.

Newcomer Igor Ozhiganov failed to contain Gallagher, and will learn from that encounter with the Canadiens forward, who is one of the very best in the NHL at driving the net. Ozhiganov’s partner, Calle Rosen, also had some loose moments in the first.

Montreal fans got another outstanding performance from 18-year-old rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi.