The Toronto Maple Leafs seemed to be well positioned to finish last overall and have the best chance to win the NHL Draft Lottery after moving out Dion Phaneuf, Roman Polak, James Reimer and Daniel Winnik before the trade deadline, but the Leafs 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Air Canada Center on Tuesday has narrowed their hold on 30th place to the slim margin of two points.
Newcomer Ben Smith scored his first goal as a Leaf midway through the third period to give Toronto their second straight win. Connor Carrick, Zach Hyman and P-A Parenteau also scored and Jonathan Bernier made 26 saves in the victory.
The Leafs were successful in keeping the Lightning offense off balance the first 40 minutes, holding Steven Stamkos and crew to just 11 shots and taking a 1-0 lead on Carrick's first goal of the season at 13:34 of the second period.
How about the smile on Connor Carrick after his first goal with the Leafs? https://t.co/UXGjeMiOYO
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) March 16, 2016
After killing off a Toronto two-man advantage early in the third, Brian Boyle tied the game for Tampa, but Smith quickly re-established the Leafs lead.
B-B-B-Bennie and the Leafs. #TMLtalkhttps://t.co/AL2nnfYGh1
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 16, 2016
“There wasn’t a lot of room out there. I thought we got a little off kilter kind of like we did in Detroit the other night, when they scored, for a while and then we settled down obviously after the goal." Leafs coach Mike Babcock said following the game. "We had lots of good players. Marty Marincin was real good again tonight. We’re getting good minutes out of those big three ‘D.’…
Marincin had two assists and was +3 in over 26 minutes on Tuesday in his second game on the top defensive pairing with Morgan Rielly.
Toronto wins over Detroit and Tampa have them at 59 points with 13 games left, while Edmonton is stalled at 61 points with 10 games left after having lost their last two games. Calgary and Winnipeg are at 63 points and Columbus has 64, but have all played the same amount of games as the Leafs.
*******
Listen to the latest podcast with myself and CTV’s Norman James as we discuss William Nylander and the Leafs future in goal.
Note : Continue to check back to my column on Hockeybuzz throughout the day for the latest Leafs updates or Follow @mikeinbuffalo on Twitter
*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact… button at the top of the page.*******
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Maple Leafs Buzz, which includes a free-of-charge 14-day trial and is just 99 cents per month afterwards. For more information click here.