Jake McCabe, Leafs make Radko Gudas pay in fiery rematch

This was never going to be just another stop on the road trip. It was the first meeting since Gudas' knee-on-knee hit ended Auston Matthews' season, and Toronto came in carrying that memory.

The score mattered. The response mattered more.

Toronto got both in a 5-4 overtime win Monday night, and the edge showed up long before John Tavares tipped home the winner with 5 seconds left in OT.

Gudas was in the middle of it all, just like everyone expected. Max Domi dropped the gloves with him, Michael Pezzetta got involved, and Jake McCabe made sure the Ducks defenseman never felt comfortable in his own zone.

The clip said plenty. McCabe closes fast, grabs Gudas high, and tries to unload while the scrum spills across the ice.

That's what this game looked like from Toronto's side. Not reckless. Not random. Personal.

Berube's team didn't wait for a speech or a staged moment. The Leafs pushed the pace physically, finished checks, and made every Gudas touch feel heavy.

Domi set the tone by going right at him. Pezzetta followed with his own answer. McCabe's sequence drove the point home that nobody in blue was about to let March 12 slide.

That mattered because Toronto also had to win a hockey game while playing with that much emotion. The Leafs were down 3-1 in the second period and still found a way to drag it back under control.

Tavares finished with 2 goals and 1 assist, while William Nylander piled up 1 goal and 3 assists. That's the part that gave the Leafs real revenge, not just the scrums after whistles.

They kept coming even after Anaheim tied it again late. Morgan Rielly gave Toronto its first lead at 17:00 of the third, the Ducks answered, and the Leafs still found one more push.

By the end, the numbers matched the mood. Toronto threw 28 hits and the game turned into a mess with 61 penalty minutes on the Leafs' side alone.

But this wasn't about putting on a show. It was about making sure Gudas felt the consequences the first time these teams saw each other after Matthews went down.

McCabe wore that part of the night best. He wasn't the only Leaf who went after Gudas, but he delivered the clearest image of what this rematch meant.