Mitch Marner registers his first goal of the season.

The monkey is finally off his back.

After an extended scoring drought that went all the way back to last season, Toronto Maple Leafs star forward Mitch Marner finally broke his scoreless streak on Saturday night with a lot of help from the Detroit Red Wings.

The Leafs already had a 1 goal lead in the third period but some great forechecking from Marner would lead to a brutal Red Wings turnover and his first goal of this regular season. Marner snuck up behind Detroit's Nick Leddy and intercepted a weak passing attempt on his part, quickly turning that turnover into a goal that gave the Leafs a 2 goal cushion late in the game.

That goal would prove to be pivotal for the Maple Leafs as the Red Wings would find a way back into this game after pulling the goaltender, with forward Filip Hronek finding the back of the net and cutting the Leafs lead back down to just 1 goal with seconds left on the game clock.

Prior to scoring tonight Marner had become the target of a great deal of criticism, much of it from the Maple Leafs fan base, due to his inability to find the back of the net this season. The goal tonight was his first in 17 games, a significant period of time without a goal for a player that is earning the kind of money that Marner is on his contract with the Maple Leafs.

It is worth noting here that, although the goal came as a direct result of a good forechecking effort on the part of Marner, that this is not what you would consider your typical goal scorer's goal. Marner had not scored on 48 consecutive shots on goal and although this goal officially breaks that worrying trend, it won't do much to dispel the concerns surrounding Marner's offensive output as of late.

If anything you can argue that Nick Leddy deserves a good bit of the credit for his seemingly low effort misplay deep in his own zone, something I am confident the Red Wings coaching staff will be discussing with him following tonight's game.