In Scrivens they trust

Ben Scrivens isn't going down without a fight.

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ 25-year-old rookie goaltender was beaten twice early on Tuesday night, but recovered nicely on a day his team admitted it was reaching out to a veteran goalie who is looking for work.

Scrivens dug in after allowing the two early goals and his ever-improving play was the main reason why the Leafs were able to salvage a point in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Phoenix Coyotes. He made a number of breath-taking saves to keep his team in the game, but ultimately left the ACC frustrated after going 0-for-2 when the game went to the 1-on-1 showdown. At that point, he couldn't make a save.

Scrivens was not the reason why they lost the game -- their fourth in a row at home, if you're keeping score. He was the driving force behind the Leafs’ ability to get it beyond regulation time.

The Leafs, as has been well documented, lost their No. 1 goalie, James Reimer, Oct. 22 when he suffered an upper body injury that has resulted in concussion-like symptoms. Reimer attempted to come back soon afterwards when he was seemingly feeling better, but after trying to practise the symptoms reoccurred and he has not been on the ice for a few weeks. There has been no indication from the team when he'll return.

Toronto then turned to backup Jonas Gustavsson, but his lack of consistency caused them to go with Scrivens and he is now the go-to guy.

In the meantime, the Maple Leafs contacted the agent of veteran stopper Marty Turco Tuesday. Turco is anxious to get back into the NHL after failing to land a contract in the off-season.

Informed of this, Scrivens, a perceptive young man, was not visibly disturbed by the potential new competition for the crease.

"Even if that is true, it doesn't change my approach in any way," Scrivens said. "I try to play my game. I'm getting an opportunity here and that's all I can do."

Just because Turco has been thrown into the mix does not mean he'd instantaneously make things right. The 36-year-old signed with the Chicago Blackhawks last season after being allowed to walk by the Dallas Stars, but didn't have a good year. Turco finished with a .500 record, 11-11-3, but his stats were less than impressive -- a 3.02 goals-against average and .897 save percentage.

This may be just a case of Leafs GM Brian Burke doing his due diligence and exploring options.

With the Leafs playing in Nashville Thursday, Scrivens will probably start again. That being the case, his coach would like to see him be a little more conscientious when it comes to handling the puck.

"We're going to have to talk to him about how he handles the puck and what we want," Ron Wilson said. "He decided he was going to make up for a mistake or two by making more difficult plays and he's got to trust our defence and get them the puck. You're looking down at the other end and there's one of the better puck-handlers in the league and it's not your job to be in a competition with him to move pucks. Your job is to stop it."

It didn't look good early against the Coyotes, but Scrivens couldn't be faulted on Phoenix's first goal which was really the result of bad luck more than anything else. Captain Dion Phaneuf had the puck at the Coyotes blueline and attempted to skate backwards while trying to control it in an effort find a better shooting lane. The puck clung to the wet ice, Phaneuf stumbled while trying to recover it and that allowed Phoenix's Shane Doan and Mikkel Boedker to break away 2-on-1. Boedker passed to the Coyotes captain who counted his fifth goal of the season at 1:54.

A few minutes later Scrivens surrendered a screened shot from the left point. Typically, the Leafs didn't wilt. That has been a trademark of the team, albeit one that could change if they'd come out stronger at the start of games and take the lead for a change.

"I thought we played really well after the way we started," Phaneuf said. "I make a bad play on that first one and then they get a quick one after that, but it just shows the character we have to come back and get that point -- a big point for us. I thought we took over the pace of the game for the last 50 minutes. They are a really good team that doesn't give up much, but we stuck with it and found a way to tie it up."

Moving forward, the focus will continue to be on the Leafs’ goaltending, although injuries continue to plague them. The Leafs lost forwards Clarke MacArthur (upper body) and Mikhail Grabovski (lower body) in the game against Phoenix and that is concerning. Centre Tim Connolly has declared himself ready for action Thursday which will help.

On a night when his team dropped another home game, Wilson still managed to see the positive.

"I was happy for Scrivens; that he buckled down and he didn't cave and came up with a lot of saves as the game went on," Wilson said. "I think he hit another little bump in the road and he got through it. I think our team's confidence in him grew as the game went on and that freed us up to go on the attack. We had a ton of opportunities to win the game; unfortunately we didn't."

Confidence in Scrivens may be a key ingredient of the Maple Leafs getting back to where they were a few weeks ago.

Veteran hockey columnist Mike Brophy will cover the Toronto Maple Leafs for sportsnet.ca for the 2011/12 season.