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SALT LAKE CITY — In an instant, Mitch Marner flipped the game to Toronto.
In the second period, as Utah and Toronto battled for the puck deep in the Utah offensive zone, the All-Star winger leaked out into the neutral zone, and that move proved to be prophetic.
Toronto emerged from the boards with the puck and John Tavares quickly sent a long outlet pass to Marner, who was behind everyone. Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka (who was, once again, strong between the posts) didn't stand a chance.
Marner's breakaway goal kickstarted a three-goal second period that pushed the Maple Leafs to a 3-2 win over Utah at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday. Utah dropped to 8-10-3 with the loss.
Marner's breakaway goal at 5:15 of the second period leveled the score, and it wasn't long before he gave the home team the lead. Marner scored a power-play goal at 9:34 when he collected the puck below the goal line and banked a shot off Vejmelka into the net.
Less than two minutes later, Toronto's William Nylander forced a turnover, skated in for another breakaway and beat Vejmelka with a backhand.
Just like that, Utah was down 3-1.
"You get on the road and you repeat the same mistakes," head coach André Tourigny said.
Utah had 12 penalty minutes on Sunday; and while they held Toronto to just 1-for-6 on power play chances, eventually those miscues caught up.
Rookie defenseman Maveric Lamoureux committed two minors (continuing a troubling trend for the youngster), and Mikhail Sergachev, Dylan Guenther and Jack McBain were also sent to the box. Utah added another with a poor change leading to too many men on the ice.
Those mistakes made it difficult to dictate the flow of the game. So even after Utah scored in the first period on a Logan Cooley deflection, the Hockey Club always seemed to be chasing the puck.
"Our game management, our game in the game, cost us a lot today," Tourigny said. "From bad changes to getting in penalty trouble, that kind of a stuff, it costs you at some point."
That point came in the second period when Marner took over. Toronto outshot Utah 16-6 in the disastrous second period.
After the run of goals, Tourigny called a timeout to try and rally his troops.
"We just needed to reset," McBain said. "A lot of things were happening pretty quick, and we just kind of needed a talk as a group. We needed to be a lot more disciplined, can't take that many penalties and try to figure stuff out. It's unfortunate that we let it get to that point."
The quick break did seem to calm things down, and McBain gave Utah some life early in the third when he deflected a Cooley shot in the slot that cut the Toronto lead to 3-2. Still, Toronto outshot Utah in the final frame and generated plenty of quality chances (Vejmelka finished with 32 saves).
Utah pushed late in the period for an equalizer, but it was ultimately too little, too late.
"I think our first and third periods were great, but we let off the gas in the second and it cost us," said McBain, whose seven goals on the season is second only to Dylan Guenther on the team.
It was a slight letdown after Utah had put together one of its best performances of the year 24 hours earlier in Pittsburgh. There was some carryover — from the offensive effort (at least in two of the three periods) and the power play — from that game. But Sunday gave the team more lessons to learn.
"First back-to-back of the season, the boys fought hard — they deserve credit for that," Tourigny said. "But we need to learn to manage the game better."
Utah will finish its four-game road trip on Tuesday in Montreal.
