[ad_1]
Toronto ended its four-game journey on a positive note on Friday night, beating the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 in overtime and sweeping the California team's annual swing for the first time in more than two decades. Morgan Rielly had the winner of the game for Toronto, while Garret Sparks made a career record with 38 net saves. The Leafs are now at the top of the NHL at 14-6-0.
To take away
Rielly ends the sweep
Toronto had not beaten a trip to California 3-0 since December 1995 and had not even been able to do so since, until they won the first two outings of that trip to Los Angeles and then in San Jose before arriving. in Anaheim on Friday.
The match was tied 1-1 after sixty minutes, as a result of goals from Patrick Marleau in the first period and Pontus Aberg in the second, and Toronto has been working overtime for the third time this season where Morgan Rielly scored his ninth goal of the season thanks to a dubbed Mitch Marner to seal the third consecutive win in Toronto. They are also 3-0 this season in overtime.
With the scorer, Rielly has extended his point series to five games (three goals, four assists) and leads all NHL defensemen in points (25) and goals (9). Rielly ended her night with four shots on goal, with a time of 23:16 on the team.
Friday's win also put Toronto at the top of the NHL standings after 20 games, one point ahead of Tampa Bay and Nashville (each playing 19 games).
Less is more for Sparks
After a dull season start for the Leafs in their 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins last Saturday, substitute goalkeeper Garret Sparks was meant to think a little less and trust his instincts on his next outing. That took place in Anaheim on the second consecutive night of Toronto's third consecutive game this season, a match Mike Babcock still refers to as his second goaltender. Sparks finally achieved his goal (with a little help from his teammates) to score the third win of his season with a record performance of 38 saves, with a .974 save percentage.
Sparks did not have as many quality scoring chances in the first period as the Ducks goaltender John Gibson This is not because Toronto controlled the game early in the game and took a 1-0 lead over Marleau's goal. But when Anaheim found her legs, Sparks had to make some difficult stops, especially at close range. Marcus Pettersson at the end of the first period when the Ducks managed to maintain sustained pressure from the Leafs.
The line of ducks Ryan Getzlaf, Rickard Rakell and Pontus Aberg Anaheim had offensively attacked most of the night and finally broke through when Aberg opened the scoring at 1-1, blocking Sparks' blocker.
In the third period, Sparks was besieged during the second half of the match and needed the help of his defenders to control the chaos. He went down twice where Ondrej Kase and Rakell had open nets to mark, and he was Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev who stepped in to block the shot and keep the Leafs tied. Babcock said that after the match, he thought Friday would be Gardiner's best game of the season, with 57% possession, with three blocked shots, three shots on goal and a score of one over 23: 00 tied on ice.
In the end, Sparks won by playing more simply, but also by showing more confidence to attack the puck he had in Boston.
Marleau by car
There are only five games left for the 1600th of his career. Patrick Marleau has gone through countless milestones to date, including another little contest from Friday. At the beginning of the first period, Marleau was in the right place at the right time to be credited with a goal in front of John Gibson, and gave the Leafs 1-0. This is the 539th goal of Marleau's 21-year career in the NHL, putting him ahead of Keith Tkachuk on the league scoring list for the sole possession of 32nd place.
His goal at Anaheim was not Marleau's only contribution on the scoresheet. He quietly scored six points (two goals, four assists) in seven competitions leading up to Friday's game, and showed a burgeoning chemistry with his teammate Kasperi Kapanen, with whom he made an appointment during the 5-3 win against San Jose on Thursday, and with whom he returned to Anaheim several times.
Marleau is perhaps the oldest member of the Leafs at age 39, but his speed allows him to give the opponent his opponent and follow the young core of Toronto while being effective at both ends of the ice. He finished Friday's game with two shots in 17:51 on the ice.
Stability needed on special teams
Continuing with a long-time trend of the season moving quickly from hot to cold on the power play, the Leafs were deemed cool with the extra player in Anaheim.
The second unit of the Leafs Tyler Ennis, Josh Leivo, Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson and Jake Gardiner used his time to generate solid opportunities, mainly from Ennis who tried the backdoor and hash marks to overtake Gibson, unsuccessfully, in Toronto's first power play.
But the Leafs' second chance was completely anemic. Anaheim controlled the puck for almost two minutes of power play and scored several times in a row. Toronto finished the game 0-2 with the additional striker.
It was two games against the LA Kings that the Leafs' power play seemed more powerful than ever, with a 3-on-6 record. That's what happened after a trip where Toronto was 3-in. -28, and since they are 0-in-5.
Running as the NHL's least-penalized team, the Maple Leafs did not waste any time, but they went to work once against the Ducks in third place and led a strong power play offer from Anaheim to finish. 1 to 1.
Just in time
In the first few weeks of the season, scoring the first goal of a game was far from being a major asset for Toronto. They did it only three times during their first 10 outings, but they won it every time. Since the end of October, the Leafs have done a better job since the start of the season. The start of Friday's game was on the board for the first time in their last two games and was 8-0 in the season, scoring the first goal. This sequence continued with Marleau's goal against the Ducks and shows how the Leafs used their early speed against their opponents and were more aggressive in placing pucks on goal.
Blue and white trends
Follow Leafs trends throughout the season
The Leafs are now 8-0-0 this season when they lead after 20 minutes.
Next game
Toronto returns home to face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday.
[ad_2]
Source link
