Toronto Maple Leafs 2 vs New York Islanders 1

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Exactly what the doctor prescribed: The Toronto Maple Leafs signed their 2019 Stanley Cup playoff ticket with a dominant 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Monday night.

First period

After suffering a disappointing defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night and having been embarrassingly dazzled in this building the last time, the Leafs started the game with the goal we were hoping to see, taking control of the event. Momentum from start to finish. -go.

John Tavares' group was particularly brilliant at first. strong on failure before and the first to lose pucks, they generated a barrage of early chances.

Although the energy in the building did not reach the same level of fever as in the previous match, the emotion on the ice was palpable:

As the period progressed, the Leafs continued to generate a high percentage of odds and were much more effective in coming out cleanly from their own zone against a failure before the Islanders who had caused them problems in this building. last time.

The four attackers played with urgency and jumped on the turnovers, one of the best chances of this period being that of Frederik Gauthier, who ended the game and made the transition in the opposite direction.

The Leafs continued to press for the icebreaker, but Robin Lehner thwarted them with an excellent goalkeeper and both teams headed to the locker room after blocking in the first period at 0-0.

Second period

Like the first period, the Leafs started the second period with momentum and controlled the pace of the game. With continuous pressure checking and quality work on the cycle, this only seemed to be a matter of time and it only took two minutes of the second period for their efforts to be finally rewarded.

After a good pursuit of the puck on the chuck, the shot from Calle Rosen allowed Lehner to beat cleanly.

After the goal, the Islanders generated a pushback looking for the equalizer. Shortly after, the Leafs suffered a fear at the worst time of the season.

Fortunately for the Leafs fans, Auston Matthews finished the match seemingly unscathed.

The Leafs quickly regained their ascending form, with Tavares again in the lead:

The emotions of the game continued to infiltrate as the Leafs found themselves on the penalty spot after a scrambling match in front.

This is a penalty you will have to suffer if you are the Leafs; Congratulations to Nazem Kadri for defending Frederik Andersen after being assaulted by his fault. The Leafs canceled the penalty and one later.

Auston Matthews, meanwhile, was not looking for wear:

The pace of play continued to accelerate, with each team generating a quality look at both ends of the ice, including a key stop from Ron Hainsey 's defense to keep the Leafs' heads intact:

Despite the fact that they dominate the period, the Leafs scored only one goal as the bell sounded 20 minutes from the end.

Third period

Similar to the previous two seasons, the Leafs started the third period by quickly gaining ground and generating multiple scoring opportunities. Encouragingly, the consistency of their efforts throughout the 60 minutes – hungry for loose pucks, forcing turnovers and generating opportunities outside the cycle – is the level the Leafs are aiming to reach in the last warm-up games of this week.

After nearly four minutes of dominant play, they finally grabbed an insurance marker.

Mitch Marner is the drop of water that makes the glass vibrate here after opening the game, dismissing the defenders and giving way to Tavares to sneak into the game and make a nice missed pass that the No. 91 has beautifully finished with a quick release.

A few seconds after the insurance countdown, Tavares went to the box office for slashing and putting the Islanders back on the power play. The Leafs were able to kill him with continued pressure from the puck for penalty takers, including more good underage work from Mitch Marner.

After another unsuccessful power play from the Leafs, the Islanders were given another chance to take advantage. This time they exhausted the Leafs' overworked penalty killers and finally settled Andersen:

With only about five minutes remaining, the Islanders continued to look for the equalizer and had Andersen work to defend the fort. The Islanders pulled out their goalie, but the Leafs kept New York under control and held onto the win.

Clip of the night

Notable statistics

Course of the game: 5v5 shooting attempts

Heat Map: Filming Locations 5v5

Post game notes

  • From start to finish, the Toronto Maple Leafs were the best team in this game and their strong 5-5 win deserved two points. Over the past few weeks, the Leafs have made considerable progress in their control of the game at the event and this has resulted in dominant performances without convincing results. Tonight's game allowed the Leafs to persevere and bounce back into the puck and the puck's luck. A tight 2-1 victory over a strong playoff team is the perfect introduction to the playoffs.
  • No player wanted more than John Tavares at night and his performance was quite dominant (one goal, two penalties shot). Next to Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman, the line recorded 70.83% FC, 68.18% FF, 53.85% SF, 68.75% SCF, 75.00 HDCF% and 58.56% GF at 5v5. The three players did a remarkable job on the front failure, protecting the puck on the cycle and generating a quality appearance in front of the net. With purpose and victory, there must have been some personal satisfaction in handling some unfinished business.
  • In addition, Auston Matthews the line was outstanding in this one largely thanks to the continued rise of William Nylander. Both players and Kasperi Kapanen combined to record a CFR of 59.26%, 70.59 FF, 71.43 FS, 50.00 HDCF and 67.69 xGF at 5v5. These performances have become the norm for the duo Matthews and Nylander, both of whom have seen their game and their underlying stats improve dramatically since their meeting in early March. It was as if it was only a matter of time before the attacking offensive of these two offensive players and it was not important to know who was connecting on the other side of the line.
  • Great performance as a couple for Calle Rosen and Travis Dermott unit, which has excelled with his two-way performance against a strong Islanders team with deep lines that are hard to contain. At 5v5, the two handsets record a 66.36 xGF%, a 66.67% CF, a 66.67% FF, a 70.59 SF%, a 61.11 SCF% and a 66.67% HDCF% at close 10 minutes of TOI together. Rosen had been waiting for another chance in the NHL for a long time and he made the most of his luck, closing the night with his first NHL goal while quickly searching for pucks and effectively moving the pill. Dermott, meanwhile, reminds all of us how much the Leafs have failed to advance the game north with the puck on his stick and his tight ditch to defend the race. Both also maintained the cycles of the offensive blue line. This is an important difference in the ease with which the Leafs leave the zone and play more offense when both are against Martin Marincin and Igor Ozhiganov.
  • Although this is not necessarily the first star of the game with the effort of the team in front of him, Frederik Andersen finally regained form with a spectacular net performance for the first time in more than a week. He finished the night with an average of 0.966%, a GAA of 1.00, a HDSV of 1000% and only granted two chances of a rebound. It was the kind of rebound game that Andersen desperately needed. He will probably play two more games before the end of the season.
  • With this win, the Leafs have officially signed their ticket to the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It's never an easy thing in this league and deserves to be celebrated. Although the Leafs' chances of winning the home advantage are not favorable, the goal should be to score 3-0-0 and put pressure on a Bruins team playing mediocre hockey. last time. Even if they do not get the help they need to catch up with Boston, the impact of opening this hot run could be very beneficial.

Condensed game

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