St Pats Weather the Storm

 

Photo From SaltWire

Last night Toronto celebrated St Patrick’s Day with a matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes and because of the holiday Toronto would wear their classic St Pats jerseys. This game was the finale of the team’s four-game homestand and fans were uncertain of how things would go because previously fans saw their Leafs blow a 2-0 lead and lose 4-3 to the struggling Buffalo Sabres, Toronto would then follow that up with a much better effort against the Colorado Avalanche but would lose in a shootout. Ilya Samsonov who has been great all season for the Leafs would get the start in goal while Pyotr Kochetkov would be in goal for the visiting Hurricanes. Last night also marked Luke Schenn’s first home game with Toronto in 3,998 days, April 5^th, 2012, a 3-2 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The first period would start and Toronto would start the game on the front foot and we wouldn’t have to wait long for the St Pats to open the scoring. They would be set up in the Canes zone when Erik Gustafsson would send a wrist shot into traffic, and Zach Aston-Reese would deflect the puck into the net for his 6^th goal of the season giving Gustafsson his first point with Toronto. The St Pats would continue applying pressure and midway through period one when Mitch Marner would double Toronto’s lead. Tavares would cause a turnover in the neutral zone and Michael Bunting would send Marner on goal with a quick pass, and Marner would beat Kochetkov on his blocker side for his 25^th goal of the season.  With Toronto now leading 2-0 it looked as if they would maybe run away with this game but if we’ve followed Carolina throughout the season, we would know that they are never out of it and just two minutes after going down 2-0 they would cut Toronto’s lead in half. Toronto would be caught in their zone and Carolina would capitalize as Brady Skjei would score his 14^th goal of the season on a goal that Samsonov would want back. Toronto’s lead would climb to two once again thanks to their powerplay. Jordan Staal would be sent off for boarding and Toronto didn’t take long for them to cash in on their opportunity. John Tavares would carry the puck into the Carolina zone, he would see Auston Matthews heading towards the goal so Tavares would send the puck towards Auston who deflected the puck in for his 32^nd goal of the season. With just a few minutes remaining in the first, the officials would be the center of attention, with the play in the St Pats end Jesse Puljujarvi would blindside Noel Acciari and for some unknown reason with four officials on the ice, no one thought there was a penalty for interference because Acciari never had the puck or there was no penalty for head contact. Acciari would leave the ice on his own but would not return and in an update, after the game, Sheldon Keefe said that Noel seems to be fine but will not make the trip to Ottawa. In the final minute, the NHL’s embarrassing officiating would be on display once again when Calle Jarnkrok would be called for goalie interference. The issue with this is Calle had his skates sideways and had stopped but was directed into the goal by the Hurricanes defender and the referee who was watching the play could see clearly that Jarnkrok was pushed into the Canes goalie. The call would stand as the first intermission took place meaning Toronto would begin period two shorthanded.

The Hurricanes powerplay would be killed off but Samsonov would be tested early on as Sebastian Aho would be sent in on a breakaway but Ilya would make a sprawling pad save. Toronto was still doing a great job defending against the Carolina attack, but midway through this period, Toronto would get caught in their zone unable to clear the puck, proving costly. With Toronto scrambling and exhausted trying to relieve the Canes pressure Carolina’s Kotkaniemi would set up Martin Necas who would beat Samsonov for his 26^th goal of the season and the St Pats lead would once again shrink to one as the score is now 3-2. A few minutes later Toronto would answer the Carolina goal with one of their own as Necas coughed the puck up in the neutral zone leading to a counterattack led by Sam Lafferty, he would be sent a pass over to Aston-Reese who would score his 7^th of the season and second of the game doubling Toronto’s lead to 4-2. The St Pats would see their lead remain intact after forty minutes of action. Period three would see Toronto shut Carolina down and any hopes of a Hurricane comeback seemed unlikely as time would go on. With eight minutes played in the third Toronto would score their fifth and final goal of the contest Toronto would be breaking out of their zone as Calle Jarnkrok would send a stretch pass to Morgan Rielly, Morgan would have Matthews with him but instead, he would fire a wrist shot over the shoulder of the Canes netminder for his 4^th goal of the season and his second point of the evening as he collected an assist on the Matthews powerplay goal. Carolina would try and work their way back into the game, but strong play defensively combined with Samsonov being so reliable in net time would expire and Irish eyes were smiling as the St Pats would end the night with a well-deserved 5-2 win.

Samsonov would see his record improve to 24-8-3 and his 18^th win on home ice as a member of the Leafs/St Pats. As I was writing this the Leafs announced that they had recalled Marlies goalie Joseph Woll and I’m sure every Leaf fan who saw this thought there was another injury to a goalie but Sheldon Keefe when speaking to the media in Ottawa announced that Samsonov is at home in Toronto because his wife is likely to give birth in the coming days. Toronto is back in action Saturday night as they begin another five-game road trip starting tonight in the nation’s capital Toronto meets the Ottawa Senators who when it looked as if they would be able to push their way into the postseason after the deadline has now been severely bitten by the injury bug and losers of their last four games, but just like the Sabres anything can happen when these two teams meet. Sheldon Keefe also mentioned that Justin Holl will draw back into the lineup along with Bobby McMann who in eight appearances with the Leafs has no points but in thirty games with the Marlies McMann has 29 points. Also playing Saturday night will be Wayne Simmonds who hasn’t played since February 1^st. Coming out of the lineup will be Mark Giordano who will miss his first game of the season and Erik Gustafsson will also come out. The expected starter for Toronto will be Matt Murray who missed the two previous opportunities to face his former team due to injury, so hopefully, things go in his favour as he will surely be excited to face Ottawa.

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