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The Toronto Maple Leafs have enjoyed good fortune for pretty much the entire regular season, leading the NHL with the best record for a lengthy period and with a tight hold on top spot of the North Division, but after completing an impressive three-game sweep of Edmonton last week, the Leafs have run into hot goaltenders in Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko and Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck.
Hellebuyck held the Winnipeg Jets within striking distance in the second period until the Jets offense could get in gear and withstood a late Toronto rally to give Winnipeg a 4-3 victory at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.
Auston Matthews scored twice to increase his yearly total to 20 and widen his lead in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy and Zach Hyman netted his eighth of the season, but Winnipeg erased a 2-1 Leafs lead in the middle frame with goals from Josh Morrissey and Kyle Connor and extended the lead in the third on a tally by Mason Appleton.
The Jets goaltender made 36 saves on the night and 32 consecutive stops before Matthews scored with the extra attacker to narrow the lead to one. Frederik Andersen made 19 saves in his second straight loss.
“I think every team goes through little stretches like this, but I think there’s lots for us to take away from it. I think it’s obviously a good thing for us that in all three games we’re right there, we’re in every game and we could have very easily gotten points out of each. That’s a good sign that we’re still right there.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “You either have winning habits or you have losing habits. When you have losing habits you end up giving up free goals and then when you’re not scoring enough on the other side of it, you lose games.
We’ve got to get back to having consistent winning habits and we’ll find that things will end up working out in our favor in the end. It’s obviously very disappointing that after three fantastic, perhaps three of our of best games of the season in Edmonton, that we’ve followed it up here now with, not poor performances, we’ve played fine in each game, but just not doing enough of the little things well that end up getting you to find ways to win games.…
With the Leafs busy schedule, the club opted for a shorter-than-normal practice at the Ford Performance Centre on Wednesday with a rematch with Winnipeg slated for Thursday. Matthews did not take to the ice, but Keefe indicated that it was a maintenance day.
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Here we go.
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) March 7, 2021
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