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The Toronto Maple Leafs needed something help them snap out of their three-game losing skid and got a boost from Auston Matthews and goalie Petr Mrazek in a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.
Matthews scored a pair of goals to overtake Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl for the lead in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy, the first tying the game in the second period 27 seconds after Frederick Gaudreau gave the Wild the lead and the game-winner midway through the third period on a give-and-go with Mitch Marner.
Mrazek bounced back from a mediocre performance against Montreal earlier in the week and supported a good overall defensive effort with 29 saves for his seventh victory of the season.
“I just thought we stuck with it for the full 60 minutes. There wasn’t a whole lot going on out there offensively for both teams,… Matthews said after the game. “(It was a) pretty structured game, but I thought Mrà¡zek made some pretty incredible saves when we had breakdowns and we were able to capitalize on a couple of chances. It’s nice to get back in the win column and going to keep this momentum going.…
Head coach Sheldon Keefe leaned heavily on the top pairing of Morgan Rielly (23:46) and TJ Brodie (24:48) on the night, but in the absence of veteran Jake Muzzin gave added responsibilities to Rasmus Sandin, Timothy Liljegren and newcomer Ilya Lyubushkin. Sandin and Liljegren played in excess of 18 minutes, with Liljegren taking over Muzzin’s spot on the top penalty-killing unit, while Lyubushkin partnered with Sandin on the second pairing and led the Leafs with three hits in 16:22 of ice time.
“I thought it was really solid. We were disciplined and committed to it. It was a low event hockey game, not the most exciting game for sure, and our guys I thought just stayed committed to it.… Keefe said. “Give Minnesota credit for how they competed and how they played, but we’ve been challenging our guys to be more committed defensively and be more focused on it. The fact that we stayed disciplined in this type of game when there is not a lot happening offensively is really big for our team.…
Winger Ilya Mikheyev left the game in the second period with what the club described as a “non-COVID related illness… and did not return. Keefe indicated that it was not anything of a serious nature, but on Friday the club recalled winger Nick Robertson from the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. Robertson missed over three months with a non-displaced fracture of his right fibula in mid-October, but since returning on February 2nd has six points (3 goals, 3 assists) in six games with the Marlies. With the second line of John Tavares and William Nylander in search of an offensive spark, it is possible that Robertson will get his first NHL start of the season against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.
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