DETROIT — If you fought through the traffic and got to Little Caesars Arena Saturday, you were entertained.
It took a while, but you got your money's worth as the Red Wings put forth a furious rally only to lose to the Maple Leafs, 10-7.
That's after the Wings trailed 7-2 after two periods, but scored four goals in a span of 4:46 early in the third period, cutting the Leafs lead to 7-6.
Toronto's Ilya Mikheyev restored a two-goal Leafs lead, but Lucas Raymond scored his second goal, cutting the lead to 8-7 at 7:45.
Ondrej Kase's short-handed goal at 10:33 gave the Leafs a 9-7 lead and Mitch Marner scored his fourth goal of the game to make it 10-7.
Filip Hronek (who added three assists), Carter Rowney, Joe Veleno and Michael Rasmussen scored for the Wings during the flurry, which chased goaltender Jack Campbell, who was replaced by former Red Wing Petr Mrazek.
Toronto (34-14-4) scored three goals on goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in just over 11 minutes and 13 shots to begin the game, leading to complete domination in the first 40 minutes.
Lucas Raymond and Sam Gagner scored for the Wings in the opening 40 minutes before the offense kicked into overdrive in the third period. Thomas Greiss stopped 10 of 14 shots before Nedeljkovic (18 saves on 24 shots) returned to begin the third period.
Toronto's top line of Marner (four goals, two assists), Auston Matthews (one goal, three assists) and Michael Bunting (one goal, four assists) were dominant, almost toying with the Wings. Marner's hat trick was the first of his career — he has 21 goals this season — and he scored his first three goals in a span of 8:46 in the second period.
William Nylander and David Kampf added Toronto goals.
Campbell stopped 20 of 25 shots before departing after Veleno's goal cut the Leafs lead to 7-5. Mrazek stopped four of six shots, just enough to save Toronto from a massively embarrassing loss.
