Leafs wake up just in time
Come to life in third period to sweep canucks
Mitch Marner said the key to success in this first three-game series the Toronto Maple Leafs have had against the same team in the regular season was to “stay hungry.”
After two days at the buffet, the Leafs spent the first 50 minutes Monday night against Vancouver expecting dessert was free.
Minus Wayne simmonds and with a new-look lineup not taking advantage of their extra ice, the Leafs looked lethargic before the usual suspects arrived at the table.
Auston Matthews from Marner, both extending respective goal and points streaks, combined on the goahead goal in an eventual 3-1 win at scotiabank Arena.
After outscoring the Canucks 12-4 in the first two matches, Lady Byng Trophy candidate Matthews took his first penalty of the year, allowing the visitors to tie it in the middle period, converted by Elias pettersson.
Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen, who didn’t face a shot until nine minutes in on saturday and was two minutes away from a shutout, had made 26 saves through 40 minutes on Monday. while his team barely threatened Braden Holtby.
This tilt was close to mustwin status for Vancouver, which had lost its previous four on the road trip. When a TV camera caught Holtby and forward J.T. Miller exchanging words after a Matthews goal on saturday, Miller admitted his culpability, but said it was a heat-ofthe-moment matter and not a sign of strife.
Coach Travis Green came back with Holtby on Monday.
The simmonds injury, a broken wrist on saturday that will sideline the winger six weeks, was unfortunate, but did open a slew of possibilities for coach sheldon Keefe to get more quality ice time for needy forwards.
He opted for just 11 up front, swapping nic petan for Alexander Barabanov and giving Rasmus sandin his first start in almost a year as the seventh defenceman. sandin assisted on the Matthews’ goal.
First up to replace simmonds on the second line with John Tavares and William nylander was ilya Mikheyev. He was among an offensively unproductive third line with Jimmy Vesey and Alexander Kerfoot, though all three have nonetheless been praised by Keefe for being strong on the other side of the puck. With the recent goal rush, none on that line have been counted upon as heavily to pad their scoring stats. Mikheyev assisted on Kerfoot’s insurance marker.
Matthews hit the eightgame mark with a goal, seven consecutive not counting an injury absence, closing in on Babe Dye’s record of 11, set twice in stretches almost a hundred years ago when Dye was with the Toronto st. patricks. With 11 overall, Matthews is two goals/ games away from tying John Anderson’s more modern Leaf mark of 10 games from 1985.
Marner also has an eightgame points streak going, putting him near the top of the NHL leaderboard. Both were in the vicinity when Toronto opened the scoring after its quietest start to the series. With Zach Hyman screening for a Marner point shot, the rebound was swept by a Vancouver defender to a pinching Morgan Rielly, but his goal went down as unassisted.
Last time these geographically separated teams played three straight in the same city, it didn’t end well for Toronto, bounced in all of them and out of the 1994 Western Conference final at the old pne rink in what was a 2-3-2 playoff format.
Forgive the Leafs if they’d let minds wander since saturday to the home andhome with the Montreal Canadiens that starts Wednesday at the Bell Centre. The two teams are the early front-runners in the north and haven’t been in a good battle for a division title in quite a while.