LEAFS NOTEBOOK: Snakebitten sniper Max Domi tries helping elsewhere

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When you’re a scorer who can’t score, then make the other team sore. 

While it’s hard to think a player such as Max Domi is now 21 games without a goal, he still salvaged something Thursday in his 14:28 of ice time that yielded one shot on goal. On a grinder line with centre Fraser Minten and Pontus Holmberg, he helped keep the heat on the Ducks in their end to nurse home a 3-2 lead. 

“He was super-reliable tonight, I had a lot of shifts with him,” said defenceman Connor Timmins. “He was always in the right place, made smart plays with the puck. 

“He’s elite offensively (despite the career-worst slump that’s held him to one playoff goal since last April) and it’s going to come for him. He’s doing the right things and that’s good to see.” 

Domi replaced Minten on one offensive zone draw, won it cleanly, and the point shot hit the crossbar. It was Domi’s second game back from missing eight with a lower body injury. 

“Their line had a strong game and some opportunities,” coach Craig Berube praised. 

Goaltender Josph Woll certainly appreciated their work, needing to orient himself after getting the surprise call to replace the injured Anthony Stolarz after one period whne the latter had a lower body issue. Anaheim managed just five shots the final frame. 

“When you can come out and play a hard third period against a team that’s down by a goal and desperate to come back, it’s awesome,” Woll said. 

The win also improved the Leafs to 14-0-0 when\leading after 40 minutes. 

MAKING WAVES     

Dakota Mermis will have to be known as a paper Maple Leaf.

The defenceman, who missed the first two months of the season with a broken jaw after signing a one-year, minimum-salary contract with Toronto, was claimed on waivers Thursday afternoon by the Utah Hockey Club.

With several blueliners injured this year, Utah needed the 30-year-old veteran after Toronto had put Mermis on a conditioning stint with the Marlies to give him at least some playing time following his return to health.

Mermis, who won Memorial Cups with London and Oshawa, spent most of his 74 NHL games with the Minnesota Wild before signing with the Leafs. His departure help prospects for Matt Benning, another veteran defender placed with the Marlies for now as the Leafs can’t accommodate him.

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While many players are happy to be claimed and get a fresh start, winger Alex Nylander had to be relieved no other team plucked him for Toronto’s list when placed there Wednesday with Mermis.

He hopes to join brother William again after his first four games following a Marlies promotion and a minimum contract with the Leafs produced no points as mostly a bottom six forward

TWO TEED UP IN GOAL

When John Tavares broke into the NHL with the Islanders in 2009, the rival Rangers had Henrik Lundqvist play 73 games in net, equaled by Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff.

But after that total was matched by four other goalies a couple of years later and bettered just once by Cam Ward’s 74 in Carolina, teams started to embrace the tandem. 

“Lundqvist and Kiprusoff would play almost every game, now you see how important it is to have two, even three in my time here,” the Leafs centre said Thursday morning when the subject turned to Stolarz and Woll. “Teams have had that success, obviously Boston with (Linus) Ullmark and (Jeremy) Swayman.  

“It’s great how (Toronto’s goalies) are feeding off one another and what they’re providing. It goes a long way for our success.”

That was before Stolarz was pulled from Thursday’s game. Berube had broken from his rotation to give Stolarz a second straight start against the Ducks. It’s unclear how the assignments will work this weekend when the Leafs are in Detroit and then home to Buffalo. 

LOWERING THE BOOM 

Berube was asked about Thursday’s game featuring some of the hardest open-ice hitters in the game — the returning Jake McCabe for Toronto, Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas for Anaheim. 

“Anytime you get a big hit (compared to recent years or in his NHL tenure the 1980s and ‘90s) it’s a head shot, it’s a suspension probably. When I played, they didn’t call them, they were good hits. You look back at Scott Stevens’ hits, things like that. 

“Today when you’re going to be physical and hit somebody, you have to watch the head, even though the player should be accountable for having his head up. It doesn’t happen all the time.”

BLUE COLLAR BUDS 

You could have made a few bucks on Tuesday in New Jersey betting on the rare Holmberg goal assisted by Connor Dewar.

Holmberg’s only previous goal, despite playing on some high-octane lines all season, was an empty-netter. Dewar had no points in 11 games since returning from shoulder surgery.

That changed when Dewar caught up to his own short-handed chip pass against the Devils and Holmberg followed to beat Jacob Markstrom to tie the game and set up an improbable 2-1 win. 

“Great to see Holmer get a blue-collar goal and Dewey to track their guy and cause an open puck,” said winger Steven Lorentz, who appreciates what fourth-liners do. “We have a lot of guys like that, who do the right things, but it might not show up on the scoresheet every night.”

REAVES BELIEVES IN ANALYTICS 

We were curious to ask Ryan Reaves, who turns 38 next month, how he adjusted to the NHL’s analytics’ era, having not grown up with it. 

“When someone comes in and tells me I could be doing something better, I have to listen,” the winger said. “We have a lot of coaches here. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it, but if they say ‘you could work on this,’ I’m not going to dismiss it.” 

Reaves said related skating drills this season have helped him. 

“I take numbers from it and feel faster when I do it. But it’s hard to translate a few of those (data suggestions) when you have a lot of other stuff going on in a game. It’s something I’ll keep working on and thinking about, but it’s hard to just switch in the middle of your 15th season.” 

LOOSE LEAFS 

The Leafs had 30-plus shots Thursday for the first time since Nov. 24 … The fourth of William Nylander’s seven shots moved him past Frank Mahovlich into eighth place in team history with 1,856 … The two points by Tavares brought him to 1,065, a tie for 73rd on the career board with Keith Tkachuk … The Ducks have now managed just six goals in past five games and were swept on the three Canadian stops of their four-game road trip, previously losing to Montreal and Ottawa … Lorentz has yet to take a penalty through 29 games, despite being one of the club’s hit leaders. “He’s been clean, which is good, and he’s been physical,” Berube sais. “I think he doesn’t get his stick in bad areas and he skates. When you take penalties, you’re reaching from behind or not moving your feet, so you high-stick a guy, hook him, trip him“ … Alberta-born Berube noted in the morning some members of the Toronto media had bundled up for the chilly morning. “A little windy and cold for you?” he teased. “I wore a T-shirt.”

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

X: @sunhornby