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The Toronto Maple Leafs met the challenge in another important divisional matchup, winning 6-4 over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday, but suffered another injury setback to their goaltending, as Petr Mrazek left the game with a groin injury.
Mrazek, who spent a pair of stints on injured reserve lasting nearly two months early in the season with groin issues, left at the 7:44 mark of the first period and did not return to the game. After the game, Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe indicated after the game that Mrazek could miss some time.
Colin Blackwell, Morgan Rielly, Alex Kerfoot, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, and David Kampf scored, and Erik Kallgren stopped 23 of 26 shots in relief of Mrazek for his third win of the season.
The Leafs held a 6-2 lead heading into the third, with the Bruins showing a level of frustration. Already short-handed due to Justin Holl being hit in the head area with a shot in front of the Toronto net, Boston winger Taylor Hall retaliated after being squeezed out along the boards by Ilya Lyubushkin with a punch that knocked the Leafs defenseman out of the game. At the end of the period, Bruins antagonist Brad Marchand was given a 10-minute misconduct for repeatedly harassing Toronto captain John Tavares.
The Leafs were forced to play the rest of the game with four defensemen, and after the game, Keefe could not provide any update on the status of either Lyubushkin or Holl.
“In terms of the workload and conditioning side of it, you have to take shorter shifts and it’s a bit harder with structure because you have to be thinking about it a lot,… Rielly said after the game. “You’re kind of hyper-aware if you’re trapped in your own zone. I think we iced the puck more in the third than we would have liked to, but I thought we did a good job of it tonight. Our forwards did a good job too helping us out, we talked about that in-between periods when we knew it was possible we were going to go down to four about not turning the puck over in the neutral zone, playing short and smart with it, so I thought we did a good job.…
Taylor Hall catches Lyubushkin with a punch pic.twitter.com/Y1Y2UbDiUO
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) March 30, 2022
On Wednesday, the NHL Department of Player Safety announced that Hall was fined $5,000.
The club had a day off on Wednesday in advance of their next game against Winnipeg on Thursday, which leaves a number of questions regarding who will be available. With a pair of right-handed defenders potentially out, Keefe could be forced to move TJ Brodie back to the right side with Morgan Rielly, but with Jake Muzzin not expected to be available, the Leafs will have to recall a blueliner from the AHL Marlies to partner with Carl Dahlstrom, who was promoted along with Kyle Clifford on emergency recall on Monday.
Mrazek’s injury further complicates the Leafs goaltending situation. Jack Campbell traveled with the club and took the full morning skate in Boston. With Mrazek and farmhand Joseph Woll injured, Campbell’s return could be moved up, but at the risk of re-injury. The Marlies took precautionary measures and did not play Michael Hutchinson in a 5-3 win over Abbottsford on Tuesday, leading to the possibility of the veteran being recalled and Kallgren making the start on Thursday.
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Lot’s of â¤ï¸ for the 💙ðŸ¤
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