Van Riemsdyk goal big in win over Wings
James van Riemsdyk broke out of a scoring slump, and the Toronto Maple Leafs snapped a five-game losing streak with a 3-2 National Hockey League victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night.
Alexey Marchenko and Nazem Kadri also scored for the Maple Leafs (28-22-14), who were 0-2-3 in their previous five outings. Rookie Mitch Marner and Tyler Bozak each had two assists.
Gustav Nyquist struck twice for the Wings (25-2711). Henrik Zetterberg extended his point streak to seven games with an assist on both goals.
Frederik Andersen made 22 saves. Petr Mrazek, making his eighth straight start for Detroit, stopped 25 shots.
A brutal turnover in Detroit’s end led to the opening goal from Marchenko, who was a Red Wing until Feb. 4 when Toronto claimed him off waivers. Darren Helm tried a cross-ice pass that was intercepted by Marner. Mrazek made a save on Bozak after he was set up by Marner, but Marchenko came in from the blue line to grab the rebound and put it into the net for his first of the season.
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill put in a challenge for goalie interference, but the call stood and Toronto had the lead just 1:07 into the game.
Van Riemsdyk doubled the lead five minutes later with his first goal in 15 games, putting home a cross-crease feed from Bozak on the power play for No. 20.
Detroit earned an early power play in the second, but couldn’t even get a shot on net and soon found itself down three goals.
Kadri made it 3-0 less than six minutes into the second with his 27th of the season. After taking a pass from William Nylander inside the faceoff circle, Kadri put a wrister high blocker side on Mrazek. Detroit went the first 16:13 of the second before registering a shot on Andersen, although the Wings did hit two posts in that span.
Nyquist finally put the Red Wings on the board, taking a pass from Zetterberg and sliding a backhand past Andersen with 38 seconds to go in the second.
Nyquist made it a one-goal game before the ice even had time to dry for the third period, scoring his second of the game and ninth of the season 36 seconds in.