The Toronto Maple Leafs forward moved into a three-way tie with Darryl Sittler and Ed Olczyk after scoring an empty-net goal in the club's 3-1 win against the San Jose Sharks.
For a while, it looked like it just wasn't going to be Mitch Marner's night.
Until it was.
With the Toronto Maple Leafs tied 1-1 with the San Jose Sharks in what was otherwise a dull and low-event affair of a game, Maple Leafs forward Pierre Engvall scored the go-ahead goal at the 17:33 mark of the second period to give his team a 2-1 lead.
That brought hope for Marner of the possibility to extend his point streak, which sat at 17 games heading into Wednesday’s contest. There was going to be a 6-on-5 situation coming for Toronto and Marner was going to be on the ice to help defend the lead and perhaps tie the Maple Leafs point-streak record at 18 games.
The first chance
With 1:48 to go, Marner carried the puck inside San Jose's blue line but instead of shooting the puck at an empty net, the forward looked to Michael Bunting skating on the left side. Marner's pass is broken up by the stick of Sharks forward and former Leaf Alexander Barabanov.
“We were just losing it [on the bench] because the guy [Barabanov] took Bunts [Michael Bunting] and he tried to go for the pass instead of just shooting it at the net,” Auston Matthews said.
Marner jokingly said he did it because he’s a “pass-first” guy.
“Big Mike [Michael Bunting] on the bench looked at me right away and couldn’t believe I tried to pass it to him,” Marner said. “He was pissed at me, to be honest.”
The second chance
With 1:25 remaining in the third period, Marner gets the puck onto his stick in the neutral zone. He fired the puck at the San Jose net just a few feet outside of the blue line but the shot just catches the side of the post.
“The first two tries, you’re like, ‘what are you doing? Let’s go home,’” Matthews said with a smile. “Let’s get this over with. We’re having some fun and just laughing.”
Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe felt the hockey gods were trying to send a message.
“Obviously you start to feel like it’s just not going to happen,” he said. “He stayed with it and he got it. It’s an important goal.”
The payoff
Marner gets the puck once again in the neutral zone and this time makes no mistake by calling his own number and put the puck into the back of the empty net.
“It was a pretty ugly way to get it done,” Marner said. “A lot of love for these guys. Every time one of them got it they were looking for me for the empty net.”
The ovation
After the goal, Maple Leafs public address announcer Mike Ross paused after announcing Mitch Marner as the goal scorer as the crowd delivered a standing ovation for the Thornhill native, who had just tied the franchise record for points streak at 18 games, joining Ed Olczyk and Darryl Sittler.
“Honestly, that was really special. That meant a lot,” Marner said. "To grow up in this city, be a huge fan of this team and to have my name with a couple of unbelievable players, it’s pretty special. A kid growing up never would have expected this and now it’s kind of a reality and it’s a cool moment, but winning the game’s more important."
The shower
The numbers
Marner has six goals and 17 assists during his 18-game point streak. The Leafs are 11-2-5 during Marner’s point streak. In that span, Marner has recorded a point 23 of Toronto’s 54 goals scored.