Leafs End Road Trip on Winning Note

 Photo From ESPN 

With the trade deadline behind us, I can now turn the focus of this blog back to game summaries. The Maple Leafs were in New Jersey Tuesday night to finish off their five-game road trip, which sent the fans on a rollercoaster of emotions. The Leafs would meet the Devils with a few important players out of the lineup. Ryan O’Reilly will miss 4 weeks thanks to a broken finger that he suffered in the loss Saturday night in Vancouver, John Tavares sat this one out as a precaution after getting banged up Saturday, and lastly, Luke Schenn stayed in Vancouver with his wife as they await the birth of their third child.

Ilya Samsonov would get the start in goal for this visiting Leafs and Ilya’s former teammate in Washington Vitek Vanecek would get the start for the Devils. When this game started the opening frame was one that the Leafs were lucky to get to the intermission unscathed because it was all Jersey to start as they tested Ilya from the opening faceoff until the horn sounded to end the period as the shots in the opening period would be 15-5 in favour of the Devis but thanks to a dialled in Ilya Samsonov the game would remain scoreless thanks to so many important saves made by the Leaf netminder.

The teams would return for the second period, and it would be the opposite of the first because this time it would be the Leafs piling on the pressure and testing Vanecek as they would outshoot New Jersey 14-9. With just over seven minutes played in the second, it would be the Leafs who opened the scoring. Sam Lafferty would show off his speed as he entered the zone. Lafferty would then drop a pass back to William Nylander and with everyone focused on Nylander he would send a pass to a wide-open Calle Jarnkrok who would score an easy tap-in for his 14^th goal of the season. With the Leafs now leading they would continue to apply offensive pressure, but Vanecek would stand tall in goal for the Devils. Late in the second period when it looked like Toronto would head into the second intermission with their lead intact the Devils would manage to tie the game. The Devils would enter the zone and Ondrej Palat would send a shot on goal that Samsonov would stop, unfortunately, there would be a rebound that Justin Holl was unable to clear, and Erik Haula would chip the puck into the Leaf goal for his 6^th goal of the season.

Things would go from bad to worst for the Leafs because, in the final minutes of the period, two Pontus Holmberg would be handed a double minor for high sticking. The Devils would see their man advantage carry over into the third period as after forty minutes of play the teams would be level at a goal a piece. In the third, the Devils would try to set up their powerplay attack, but Mitch Marner would cause a turnover in the neutral zone sending him all alone on a breakaway. Marner would pull off a highlight reel move before sliding the puck around Vanecek for his 23^rd goal of the season and Toronto would once again lead this contest by a score of 2-1. The Leafs would still have work to do as the Devils would still have time remaining on the Pontus Holmberg double minor. When it looked as if the remaining minute would expire without any consequence the Devils would have one final attempt at this powerplay. There would be a lost board battle keeping the puck in the Leafs zone, and the puck would make its way to Dawson Mercer. He would then send a pass to Ondrej Palat who had just returned from getting stitched up and Palat would tie the game a second time with his 8^th goal of the season. So, with the game tied at twos and momentum clearly on the side of the Devils, they would go on to take the lead just three minutes later. In the Leaf zone, the puck would get sent around to Palat and he would send the puck toward the goal where Erik Haula would deflect the puck by Samsonov for his 7^th of the season and second goal of the game and the Devils would come charging back to now lead by a score of 3-2. This goal happens simply because Holmberg missed an assignment leaving Haula all alone for the goal. If Pontus got into the path of Haula then that goal likely doesn’t happen, and the game would have remained tied. The Leafs who just minutes prior to this had a 2-1 lead thanks to a Mitch Marner highlight-reel goal would now find themselves trailing and I’m sure many Leaf fans thought they were going to see their team cough up another game, but Toronto wasn’t going to just give up and concede this one. With about five minutes left in regulation, the Leafs would go on the attack looking for the equalizer. Justin Holl would make up for his defensive struggles by sending a stretch pass to David Kampf would then send a perfect backhand pass to Michael Bunting who would send the puck in a wide-open cage for his 20^th goal of the season. Bunting was demoted to the fourth line because Sheldon Keefe wasn’t happy with Bunting’s play in recent games I think responded very well to the demotion and Keefe noticed it too. With the game tied at three and overtime looming New Jersey’s big trade acquisition Timo Meier would take a very undisciplined high-sticking minor giving the visiting Leafs a golden opportunity to regain the lead. Prior to this minor, it was mentioned that the Devils penalty kill had been on a roll killing off 13 consecutive penalties but as everyone knows if you keep playing with fire eventually you will get burned. This was just the case for New Jersey. The play would start in the neutral zone as Morgan Reilly would send a pass to Mitch Marner who would deliver a perfectly timed touch pass to Willy Nylander as the Leafs entered the New Jersey end. Nylander would look to pass and with everyone in the building and at home thinking, Bunting was awaiting the pass he would instead let the pass go between his skate’s shades of Mario Lemieux to Paul Kariya in the 02 Olympics and instead Auston Matthews would collect the puck before snapping a shot by the glove of Vanecek for his 29^th goal of the season. The Leafs who were now leading by a score of 4-3 were just two minutes away from a massive win and an important two points knew they would face one final push from New Jersey and that’s exactly what would happen with time expiring and the Devils pressing all hopes of a New Jersey comeback were dashed as Jake McCabe would make two crucial blocks as the horn would sound signalling the end of the game and the Leafs would escape the Prudential Center with the win and the two points to remain five points up on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the race for home ice for their likely playoff series.

 

Toronto will now have the next three days off before returning to action Saturday night when they host the Edmonton Oilers, the first of a four-game homestand for Toronto.

That’s all for this one thanks as always for reading.