MATTHEWS- LESS LEAFS WIN OVER WILD.
TORONTO 4 MINNESOTA 2
TORONTO • Those upset about paying big bucks at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night and not seeing Auston Matthews settled for Patrick Marleau and Matt Martin leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-2 win.
With leading scorer Matthews missing his first game after 104 straight regular season and playoff appearances, Toronto survived defensive breakdowns and a slow start offensively to win two straight at home for the first time since early October. The Leafs now have a record of 5- 0- 0 when new acquisition Marleau scores, while fourth liner Martin had the eventual game winner.
A big piece of the two points belonged to goaltender Frederik Andersen who made 35 saves, including a few at the end before Connor Brown’s empty netter sealed the victory.
For this game, Leafs head coach Mike Babcock put a quick end to speculation about Matthews’s health status, opening his morning remarks by scratching him for at least one game with a suspected back injury — or “upper body,” as he repeated when specifics were requested.
“No one is moving into his spot, someone is going to play there,” said Babcock, either in praise of his young star or trying to keep with the team togetherness concept.
The Leafs waited almost nine minutes for their first shot of the game, which might have been a good thing for Minnesota given Devan Dubnyk’s early season inconsistency. Toronto scored first, with Morgan Rielly just missing the net, but nicking Nazem Kadri and getting a backboard bounce right off the goalie’s skate and in.
But Rielly and defence partner Ron Hainsey couldn’t exit the zone late in the first, which eventually led to Zack Hyman losing track of Jason Zucker in front and he got getting enough of an Eric Staal rebound. Zucker scored a second goal with five minutes to play and Connor Carrick in the box.
Carrick and Andreas Borgman, the Leafs’ most inexperienced pair, were guilty of sloppy coverage and serving three minors between them.
Two Wild players got underneath the Leaf blue-line duo in the middle period, with Matt Cullen stopped by Andersen. Toronto went down and took the lead on Marleau’s sixth of the year.
Martin provided insurance, tipping a Carrick shot past Dubnyk early in the third.