Leafs Win it Late in Ottawa

 

Well fans since my last article we have  some Leafs news, during the time off since Toronto’s 4-0 win against the Sens Coach Sheldon Keefe was given a 2-year extension with the Maple Leafs. This decision makes a lot of sense because with Keefe behind the bench since taking over from Mike Babcock in the 19-20 season he has gone on to win 62 games. Yes, the playoff results haven’t been there but as I mentioned in my Final Thoughts article from last season Sheldon Keefe knows how to win and I am sure he will find success in the post season with the Maple Leafs.

 

Last night the Leafs once again were on the road to battle the Ottawa Senators. Jack Campbell would get the start in goal and his counterpart would be Matt Murray. I’ll be honest this article will likely be a short one because the Leafs are back in action tomorrow night, so I am going to start talking about this game in the second period because for the most part the opening period was fairly uneventful. The only newsworthy incident in period one was midway through the period Ottawa would see Colin White leave the game after what looked to be an innocent collision and when asked about the injury Sens coach DJ Smith said Colin White will have an MRI tomorrow and likely miss a few weeks.

So, we’ll jump to the second period with the game still goalless, but the Leafs would be given a golden opportunity to open the scoring as Ottawa’s Josh Brown would serve two minutes for holding giving the visiting Leafs the first man advantage of the frame. Now the other night when these two teams met Toronto’s power play was a big factor as Michael Bunting scored a hat trick with all three goals coming while playing a man up. This power play would be no different as while in the final minute of the power play Josh Ho-Sang would collect his 4^th assist of the preseason as he would set up Pierre Engvall who would fire the puck into the roof of the net for his first goal of the preseason campaign.

With the Leafs now leading 1-0 they would look to build off of the goal and throughout the period Jack Campbell was there when needed and managed to keep the host Senators off the board with the second period now in its final minutes and things looking like Toronto would maintain their lead the Ottawa Senators had other plans as they would begin to cause the Leafs to turn the puck over and find themselves stuck in their end of the rink. Former Leaf Connor Brown who last year scored a career high 21 goals would level the game at ones as Brown would deflect Nick Holden’s point shot passed Jack Campbell.  After 40 minutes of action the teams would head to the intermission with the game tied 1-1.

 

The third period would be a little interesting because throughout the game Ottawa’s Drake Batherson was throwing his weight around, but one hit in particular would draw the attention of the Leafs and Batherson would throw a hit behind the Toronto goal, but the Leafs players and coaches would holler for a penalty, but none would be called. As the third period went on Toronto would see a few more power plays go unanswered allowing Ottawa to gain confidence and slightly build some momentum. However with a minute and a half remaining and overtime looming Toronto’s Adam Brooks and Michael Amadio would come in on a 2 on 1 rush Brooks would slide the puck across to Amadio who was streaking to the net and for some reason Sens defender Thomas Chabot had his stick off the ice allowing former Sen Amadio easy access to the puck and he would slide it into the open Ottawa goal giving the Leafs the 2-1 lead with just 90 seconds left in regulation. So, with Ottawa now trailing they would result to pulling Matt Murray for the extra attacker, but Ottawa would see the Leafs add an empty net goal as with just one second left on the clock Pierre Engvall would slide the puck into the open cage and Toronto would leave the Nations Capital with another win their third win of the preseason. Toronto now will return home for their final meeting with the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday. It’s worth mentioning that during the broadcast it was reported that Carey Price will likely miss the first game of the regular season as he is still dealing with an apparent knee injury so it looks as if the Montreal net will belong to Jake Allen for the next little while.

Lastly Rocket Richard winner Auston Matthews took part in his first full practice on Monday since having offseason surgery on his wrist and when asked about it Matthews said he was happy with how his wrist was progressing but strength wise it still needs time but it is still believed that he will be good to go come opening night.

Thanks as always for reading