Sharks fall to Maple Leafs, 4-1

TORONTO - Patrick Marleau’s return to Scotiabank Arena in his 1,500th game with the Sharks ended on a sour note.

After being dominated for large stretches of the second and third periods, the Sharks allowed a third-period goal to Morgan Rielly with 5:29 left in a 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

With the Sharks defenders backing up at the blue line, William Nylander entered the Sharks’ zone and found Rielly with a cross-ice pass. Rielly made no mistake, beating goalie Martin Jones for his third goal of the season.

Ilya Mikheyev and Auston Matthews both scored in the ?final minute for Toronto.

The Sharks were playing their third game in four nights Friday, and it showed, as they managed just 10 shots on goal in the first two periods and four shots in the third.

The Sharks lost in Buffalo to the Sabres in overtime on Tuesday and beat the Canadiens in Montreal, 4-2, on Thursday.

Further exasperating matters were the five penalties the Sharks had to kill, including delay-of-game calls on Timo Meier and Melker Karlsson in the third period.

Jones stopped the first 16 shots he faced but couldn’t do anything on Jake Muzzin’s goal with 1.9 seconds left in the second period that tied the game.

Leafs forward Jason Spezza retrieved a puck in the corner to the right of Jones and fired it back toward the net. Jones got a stick on it but couldn’t get it past an open Muzzin, who tapped it in for his second goal of the season.

The Sharks had just three shots on net in the second period as they had to kill off back-to-back ?minor penalties to Mario Ferraro and Barclay Goodrow.

The Sharks also killed a first-period penalty to Logan Couture, as Matthews and Rielly both had shots go through the crease past Jones. Alexander Kerfoot also had a golden chance, but his breakaway opportunity was stopped by Jones, who had nine saves in the first 20 minutes.