Leafs and Jets game ends in pandemonium; Reaves ejected in first game back

It all began with a bad bounce off of Jake McCabe, which led to a Jets goal towards the end of the game, and following the goal, both teams became heated, which resulted in a melee. Appleton took a run at McCabe following the Jets' goal which started the scrum. From there, McCabe forced Appleton into the boards putting him down onto the ice.

Away from that scrum, Ryan Reaves and Josh Morrissey were in a shoving match, but luckily for Morrissey, his teammate Dylan DeMelo came to his aid to prevent a Ryan Reaves beatdown that was about to commence.

This wasn't Reaves' first time in tonight's game where he was ready to go with a Winnipeg Jets player. Earlier in the game, he and Nikolaj Ehlers exchanged pleasantries.

Obviously, both Ehlers and Morrissey were all talk and weren't expected to do more than simply engage with Reaves since they are not fighters and would be heavily outmatched against someone like Reaves, who has no problem dishing it out when someone steps up to the plate.

With Reaves technically instigating with Morrissey to draw him into a scrap, especially torwards the end of the game, the officials had no other choice but to eject the 37-year-old enforcer from the game. Reaves capped the night off by waving goodbye to the Winnipeg Jets in his hometown.

Reaves may have been ejected from the game tonight, but he got the last laugh by scoring his second goal of the season after being injured and healthy scratched for the last six weeks. His goal shifted the momentum late in the first period, which led to the Leafs maintaining pressure throughout the game and earning two points against a very game Jets team who led the Central Division before dropping their last two consecutive games to the Leafs.