Like Raptors, Leafs are flying high at Air Canada Centre
TORONTO — Not to be outdone by the Raptors’ home heroics, the Maple Leafs are doing their bit to make the Air Canada Centre a fortress.
Nazem Kadri scored twice Saturday night as Toronto posted a franchise-record 10th straight home victory — snapping a fourgame losing streak in the process — with a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Toronto’s four straight losses all came on the road.
Kasperi Kapanen and Mitch Marner also scored for Toronto before Patrick Marleau added an empty-net goal with 58 seconds left after late Pittsburgh goals by Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist made things interesting for the crowd of 19,504.
Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly contributed three assists to match a career high.
Toronto had won nine in a row at home from Nov. 11 to Dec. 26, 1953, and from March 6 to April 7, 2007.
Toronto (40-22-7) last lost at the Air Canada Centre on Jan. 22 to Colorado. The high-flying Raptors, meanwhile, have lost just one of their last 12 at home where they are a leaguebest 28-5 this season. The Leafs are 23-8-2 at home this season.
MLS champion Toronto FC, another Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment team, lost just twice at BMO Field in 2017.
Leafs coach Mike Babcock had little to offer on the home success.
“Well you want to be real good at home and obviously you want to be real good on the road,” he said in classic Babcock-talk. “Obviously, I don’t know why, sometimes it goes better that way.”
“I don’t have all those answers,” he added. “But obviously you want to be comfortable in your building.”
Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly is just going with the flow.
“It’s great. We love playing at home,” said Rielly, who was in the ACC crowd Friday when the Raptors downed Houston 108-105 to end the Rockets’ 17-game winning streak. The Raps have won seven straight.
Washington, which blanked San Jose 2-0 earlier in the day, moved one point ahead of the Pens atop the Metropolitan Division.
Pittsburgh (39-26-4) came into the game having won three straight and nine of its last 12. The Penguins will leave thinking they deserved more.
“They got a couple of quality chances and they finished,” said coach Mike Sullivan.
“They were opportunistic early in the game. I thought we had a good start, we were controlling territory, we were controlling momentum. The first couple of goals that they got, I don’t think we made them work hard for, and that’s on us. We’ve got to take ownership for that. I know our guys are capable of making it more difficult.
“There were a lot of good things that went on out there as well. We had opportunities to score. We couldn’t seem to finish tonight. We pushed at the end, but obviously a four-goal deficit is tough.”
Pittsburgh got off to a torrid start, bottling the Leafs up in their end and outshot them 6-0 in the first four minutes. It took Toronto 5 1/2 minutes to register a shot on goal.
The Maple Leafs, who had won 13 of 15 games before their four-game road slide, led 3-0 on nine shots midway through the contest. Three successful penalty kills against the league’s best power play helped. It was only Toronto’s second win in six games without star centre Auston Matthews, who injured his shoulder in a victory over the Islanders on Feb. 22.
Kadri now has 26 goals on the season, an amazing turnaround for a player who went 0-for-December.