maple leafs

Weekend wins over Sens and Islanders give Leafs hold on home-ice

Apr 18, 2022 • 8:17 am

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The Toronto Maple Leafs took a couple steps closer to solidifying home-ice advantage for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a pair of victories on the weekend. On Saturday, the Leafs came back from a 3-1 second period deficit against Ottawa to win 5-4 on Mark Giordano’s overtime game-winner, and on Sunday without leading scorer Auston Matthews, Toronto bested the NY Islanders 4-2 at Scotiabank Arena.

Mitch Marner, Pierre Engvall, and William Nylander scored, and Jack Campbell made 27 saves for the victory, setting a new franchise record with the 50th win and 106th point on the season, but setting a regular-season mark is not the primary focus of the club that has not advanced past the first round in almost a generation.

“I don’t know that it means a lot, especially with where we need to get to as a team when it counts the most,… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “It’s obviously not nothing and I think it speaks to the work that this team has done and speaks to what this team is capable of. It also just speaks to the fact that we need to remain focused on the fact that we’re a really good team and we can do really good things. We’ve been through a lot this season, ups and downs, we’ve been questioned at different times, and understandably because of what we’ve failed to do in previous years and where we know we need to get to, but this team has done some really great things and has great capabilities ahead so we just need to continue to focus on the fact that we’re a good team and continue to ramp up for playoffs.…

The wins move the Leafs six points ahead of third-place Tampa and nine points in front of Boston in the Atlantic Division with six games to go, but after a home game against Philadelphia on Tuesday Toronto takes to the road for four games, including a head-to-head matchup in Tampa Bay.

Toronto played both games without Jake Muzzin and Sunday without Matthews, sitting out with what was described as minor injuries, but those omissions smack of load management with less than two weeks to go before the post-season. It is possible that both will be back in the lineup on Tuesday

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