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The Toronto Maple Leafs can only hope that their matchup against the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs will be as one-sided as the contest on Wednesday, as the Leafs took an early lead and never looked back in a 4-1 win over the Habs at the Bell Centre.
William Nylander, Auston Matthews, Jake Muzzin and Adam Brooks scored for Toronto, and Jack Campbell made 32 saves for his 14th win of the season, as the Leafs maintained their seven point lead on Edmonton for top spot in the North Division and clinched a playoff spot for the fifth straight year.
Every new angle they show of this Auston Matthews goal makes it better and better pic.twitter.com/hC7gZLD12b
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 29, 2021
“We’ve felt like a playoff team for quite a long time here, yet you still have to accomplish it. It is part of the journey.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “You've also got to reflect on it and feel good about it. It's a good accomplishment. To do it here with games remaining on the schedule and to be the first team in the division to accomplish that, that's a great thing. The guys have worked hard through a very challenging and unique season.…
It was a night for individual marks, as Joe Thornton registered his 1,100th career NHL assist on Muzzin’s second period goal, Jason Spezza tied Maurice “the Rocket… Richard for 99th on the NHL’s all-time point register with 966 career points with a pair of assists, and Mitch Marner became the first player in Leafs history to register 60 points three times in less than 50 games.
ADAM BROOKS 🚨
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 29, 2021
OFF THE GIVEAWAY! pic.twitter.com/RWeZa6PjE9
The Habs were playing their fourth game in six nights and without starting goalie Carey Price, forwards Brendan Gallagher and Jonathan Drouin, and that appeared to be a factor in the game, as Nylander scored 98 seconds into the game on the power play and Matthews scored his league-leading 35th goal of the season on an impressive bit of hand-eye coordination.
Sandin finishes his check on Evans pic.twitter.com/93RHFzegeQ
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 29, 2021
Muzzin and Nick Suzuki exchanged second period goals and Adam Brooks iced the game away on a giveaway by Canadiens goalie Jake Allen in the third.
“The second and third period I thought we did a good job of (forechecking). In the first period, I really don’t think we did that very well at all. I don’t think we spent much time in their end at all, especially in the second half once we made it 2-0.… Keefe said. “(Montreal) obviously got behind us a couple times, but (I) thought we defended real well today and I thought our defense moved the puck really well and helped get us out of our end relatively clean.
The Leafs will play the second of their final back-to-back of the regular season on Thursday against the Vancouver Canucks at Scotiabank Arena. The Canucks are also playing on back-to-back days, after losing 6-3 to Ottawa on Wednesday.
Lineup changes will not be revealed until later this afternoon, but it is expected that David Rittich will get the start for Toronto and Braden Holtby will go for Vancouver.
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Lot’s of â¤ï¸ for the 💙ðŸ¤
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) April 26, 2021
Convo on Podcast.#theleafsconvo https://t.co/Xdn3CDLVCI
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