Toronto makes Carolina look slow, snaps losing skid
The Maple Leafs poured in two unanswered goals in the third period en route to snapping a two-game losing streak.
Tyler Ennis, Morgan Rielly, Patrick Marleau and John Tavares, with his team-leading 19th, had the goals. Toronto was noticeably better holding on to pucks and neutral-zone play. When they do that, they are a very fast team as a result, and they made a speedy Hurricanes team look slow in the third period. á Offensive stars: Rielly was credited with the Leafs’ second goal after his pass into the goal crease got knocked into the Carolina net by Hurricanes defenceman Dougie Hamilton. Rielly now has a career-high 10 goals, and with 51 games left to play. He is on a 12-per-cent shooting rate, also a career high … Mitch Marner picked up the assist on the Tavares goal, his 35th assist of the season. He also collected $212,500 (U.S.) under his entry level contract bonus structure for reaching 35 assists. á Defensive stars: Nazem Kadri had two big hits in the second period, a marked response after taking a huge hit earlier in the period. Kadri was the Leafs’ hardest worker … Leafs goalie Freddie Andersen had several big stops to help his team hang on to leads. He was at his best on a cross-crease pad save on Sebastian Aho in the second.
á Turning point: Marleau’s goal in the third put Toronto up 3-1 and broke open a tight game. Marleau now has four goals in his past eight games.
á Take-aways: Toronto allowed 29 shots in the first period in a 5-2 loss to Carolina Nov. 21. The Leafs allowed nine shots in the first period Tuesday night (15-9 edge in shots in first period) … Marner has not scored in 12 games now, but he’s on pace for 109 points, so there is that. … Auston Matthews went goalless for just the second game in the seven games since he’s returned from a shoulder injury. Matthews entered the game with 77 goals in his last 160 NHL games — a stunning 44-percent shooting rate, which leads the NHL over that span.
á Talking point: William Nylander notched an assist, his second in three games since he signed his new contract. It was a nice feed on a two-on-one on the Marleau goal. Nylander had looked mostly sluggish in his return. But these are like training camp games for Nylander, he will likely need at least 5-10 games to regain his conditioning and offence.
á They said it: “If in the end, he had 60 (starts), it wouldn’t hurt my feelings.”
Leafs coach Mike Babcock, telling TSN in a pre-game interview his feelings on Andersen’s workload this season. Andersen is on pace for 66 starts, which would mark a third consecutive season at that mark. á Up next: In Tampa on Thursday night, 7:30 p.m.