The Lead Grows to 8 Points

 

Last night on hokey night in Canada we saw the rematch between the host Winnipeg Jets and the North Division leading Toronto Maple Leafs. We would see the same two goalies in net for their respective teams as we did Thursday night. Hellebuyck who was chased from the goal after allowing 3 goals on 6 shots was looking to help the Jets rebound and Jack Campbell after snapping his winless streak the other night would look to keep his Maple Leafs in the win column.

If you were a fan of old time in your face hockey, then this game is right up your ally because it seemed like after every whistle a scrum was taking place Nikolaj Ehlers, and Joe Thornton seemed to have an issue all night which was fun to see but let’s talk about the game first.

 

The other night we saw the Leafs strike quickly and last night we would see a goal scored early into the action but this time it would be the Jets opening the scoring as just 30 seconds in the Jets would win a defensive zone faceoff and streak down the ice where Paul Stastny would send a saucer pass across the ice to Nikolaj Ehlers who would send the puck over the shoulder with a backhand goal, his 21^st of the season to give Winnipeg the early 1-0 advantage. Now on occasion the team who gets scored on early like this would get rattled and forget their original game plan, but the Leafs would just hit the reset button line up at Center ice and get right back to work with the hopes of finding an equalizing goal. Toronto’s pressure and time spent in the Jets end would pay off and the Leafs would tie the game thanks to a goal from the fourth line as Joe Thornton would score his 4^th goal of the season his first goal in 26 games as he would use his reach and wrap the puck around and into the Jets goal. Thornton would enter the record books as at the age of 41 years and 293 days old Jumbo Joe Thornton would become the oldest member of the Maple Leafs to score a score breaking the record set originally by Allan Stanley who scored his goal on April 8^th of 1968 against the Oakland Seals.

 

With the Leafs now level they seemed to feel they were in control of the game and would continue to play on the front foot looking for the go-ahead goal and midway through the opening period Jake Muzzin would dump the puck into the offensive zone but as Hellebuyck would come up to play the puck it would bounce off a station and right to Mitch Marner who would collect his 17^th goal of the season and his milestone 100^th goal of his career and Toronto would go ahead 2-1. Muzzin and Foligno would pick up assists on the Marner goal giving Foligno points in consecutive games.

 

In the final minute of play in the first things would start pick up as Rasmus Sandin and Blake Wheeler would be chasing down a lose puck and knowing that he would likely receive a hit Sandin managed to throw a hit of his own on an unexpected Wheeler laying him out, Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor would take exception to this and go after Sandin but it would end up giving the Leafs a powerplay. Toronto would see their man advantage interrupted by the intermission as the Leafs headed into the break with a 2-1 lead.

The second period would start with the Leafs still on the powerplay, but Winnipeg would kill off the remaining minute keeping their deficit at 2-1. At the seven-minute mark of the second the teams would trade odd man rushes and after a great backchecking play by Nylander he would assist John Tavares with his 17^th goal to grow the Leafs lead 3-1. The second period would end with the Leafs holding a two-goal lead and another power play would carry over into the third.

 

In the final frame would see the Thornton and Ehlers feud really heat up as the two would be in each other’s faces trading cross checks and spearing infractions. In this period Winnipeg would play with some desperation as they were hoping to keep Toronto within reach in the standings. Winnipeg would manage to draw a few penalties but thanks to some strong play in goal from Campbell and the occasional assist from a goalie’s best friend the post Toronto would manage to kill off each Jets advantage. In the final minutes of the contest Toronto would score their fourth and final goal as Alex Kerfoot would tuck in his 8^th goal of the campaign after a great shift by Ilya Mikheyev who thanks to his speed managed to draw another penalty before assisting on the Kerfoot goal.

 

With this win Toronto’s 30^th of the season they leave Manitoba with four very important points giving them an eight-point cushion and now after the league adjusted the schedule for the Leafs they now are off untill Wednesday when Toronto travels to the Bell Centre to meet the Canadiens who like the Leafs have been bitten by the injury bug and because of the struggles that come with injuries the Habs have seen their lead on the 4^th and final playoff spot shrink to 4 points with the Calgary Flames knocking on their door.