Markstrom survives Toronto onslaught for 2-1 win

VANCOUVER — Jacob Markstrom spent a little longer than usual peeling off his equipment Saturday night.

After a stellar performance — one that almost earned him the first shutout of his National Hockey League career — the Vancouver Canucks goalie was well within his right to take some extra time to decompress.

Markstrom made 35 saves as Vancouver survived a hellacious Toronto onslaught over the final two periods to down the Maple Leafs, 2-1.

“He won the game for us,” said Canucks forward Daniel Sedin. “The last 40 minutes, it was all Toronto.”

Markstrom actually had the Leafs’ number for more than 57 minutes before James van Riemsdyk finally got one past him on a tip off a point shot with 2:52 left in the third.

The hulking Swede, who has now gone 114 career starts without blanking an opponent, jokingly pretended to ignore questions about the streak, but eventually came around.

“I’ve had maybe 10 or 20 games where it’s like this,” Markstrom said of losing a shutout late. “What do you have to do for it? It is what it is. You can’t beat yourself up. You want to get rid of it and make it happen, but I’d take this any day of the week, for sure.”

Markus Granlund and Alexander Edler scored in the opening period for Vancouver (13-10-4).

“We had to work tonight, we had to defend hard,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. The had just nine shots after the first period.

Frederik Andersen, the NHL’s second star of the month for November, made 24 saves in taking the loss for Toronto (17-10-1), which had 66 shot attempts to Vancouver’s 47. “We generated a lot of pressure,” he said. “They did a good job of not letting us get to those opportunities for rebounds.”

The Leafs entered Saturday with a 9-2-1 record over their last 12, and were coming off consecutive victories in Edmonton and Calgary to open a three-game road trip through Western Canada.

“I’m greedy,” said Toronto head coach Mike Babcock. “(Markstrom) was good, but in saying all that we weren’t ready to go at the start and (when) you play catch-up hockey it’s usually losing hockey.”

The Canucks survived a frantic finish that included the puck rolling off the stick of Auston Matthews in the dying seconds to preserve the win inside a raucous Rogers Arena. The Leafs are home to Calgary on Wednesday.