TORONTO - The Toronto Maple Leafs weren't ready to let their playoff dreams slip away.
Trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 after a lackluster opening 40 minutes Wednesday night, the players took an honest assessment of their situation during the intermission.
"I think we realized that it's do or die," forward Clarke MacArthur said.
The Maple Leafs responded with a rare third-period comeback. Phil Kessel tied it and set up Mikhail Grabovski's winner just 42 seconds into overtime. The 3-2 victory over Pittsburgh moved Toronto within four points of eighth-place Carolina in the Eastern Conference standings.
"We came out storming in the third," said James Reimer, who made 27 saves. "The guys deserved it. ... It was a real sweet victory for us, it was a good one to watch."
There was little time for celebration as the team boarded a plane immediately after the game and flew to Philadelphia. They'll face the conference-leading Philadelphia Flyers - and former teammate Kris Versteeg - on Thursday night.
After improving to 9-2-4 since the Al-Star break, the Leafs wanted to focus on the strong finish against the Penguins rather than the flat opening.
"It's good for our confidence," coach Ron Wilson said. "We were a little tentative, a little tight for most of the game. We found a way to hang in there."
Nikolai Kulemin also scored for the Maple Leafs.
Matt Niskanen and Chris Conner replied for Pittsburgh.
Some bizarre scheduling saw the Penguins play their second consecutive game at Air Canada Centre. They returned to Pittsburgh for a couple days of practice after their 6-5 shootout victory over the Maple Leafs on Saturday before coming back to Toronto.
This game was nowhere near as fast-paced as the first one. The strain of playing so many tight games appeared to be catching up with the Leafs, who managed just 10 shots in the first two periods.
"I would have liked to see us get to 3-1," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "There was a couple rebound chances that looked to be pretty good opportunities from the bench. But we didn't get there and really, going into the third period with a 2-1 lead, we need to find ways to be better in those situations and close out that game regardless of whether we got that third goal or not."
Kessel scored for the eighth time in eight games by parking himself at the side of the goal and having Carl Gunnarsson's point shot deflect in off him at 5:07 of the third period.
"I got a good break tonight," Kessel said. "It hit my pants."
He has played an important role in Toronto's turnaround. Kessel endured a 14-game scoring drought immediately before his current offensive outburst and the team is 5-0-3 since he started scoring again.
"Phil, once he scores a goal it lights him up for awhile," Wilson said. "I hope it's for the next six weeks."
Grabovski's winner came on a beautiful setup. Dion Phaneuf controlled the puck in the offensive zone during a line change before starting a bang-bang-bang passing play that ended with Kessel finding Grabovski alone in front.
That brought relief for him after missing an earlier breakaway opportunity and having gone six games without scoring.
