The Maple Leafs made it a clean sweep on the weekend, following up Saturday’s 5-4 home victory over the New York Rangers with a 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Center in Kanata, ON Sunday night.
Goalie James Reimer made 38 saves for his fourth win of the season and added to his already impressive record against the Atlantic Division rival. Reimer is now 10-2-1, with a 2.05 GAA and .942 save percentage vs Ottawa and 8-1-0 at the Canadian Tire Center, where he made his NHL debut nearly four years ago.
While the weekend wins contained inconsistencies, momentum crushing goals and avoidable errors that have cost the Leafs wins in the past, Toronto was able to overcome those setbacks following an unconventional blueprint.
The Leafs fell behind before the game was five minutes old for third time this week, as Mike Hoffman beat Reimer with a wrister 2:58 into the first period, but Toronto bounced back with Peter Holland’s tying goal that deflected past Sens goalie Robin Lehner.
The pendulum continued to swing back and forth through the first half of the game, as Kyle Turris scored on a delayed penalty late in the first to give Ottawa a 2-1 lead and Toronto responded early in the second on James van Riemsdyk’s sixth of the season. Mark Stone’s power play goal reestablished the Sens lead, but just over two minutes later the Leafs equalized as call-up Trevor Smith set up rookie Josh Leivo for his first of the year.
The turning point came midway through the middle frame, as Holland eluded Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson and set up Mike Santorelli for the game-winning short-handed goal and added some insurance early in the third, as David Clarkson tipped a Morgan Rielly shot past a screened Lehner.
With the victory, the Leafs move to 8-5-2 on the season and one point in front of the Senators in the Atlantic Division standings.
The key to Toronto’s weekend success was getting scoring from lines other than the unit of van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Kessel. While the top line scored two key goals against the Rangers and Sens, they also cost the Leafs at the other end of the ice, allowing Rick Nash’s go ahead goal on Saturday and both Ottawa tallies in the first on Sunday.
The unit of Holland, Leo Komarov and Santorelli combined for four goals, including a pair of short-handed tallies and both game winners, the unit of Richard Panik, Nazem Kadri and Clarkson were responsible for three goals(including Roman Polak’s tying goal) and the fourth line of Leivo, Smith and Sam Carrick chipped in a goal and played their most effective game of the season.
“Those guys handled it well.… Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said of the fourth line. “The one thing you can say about those kids is they are not a liability defensively. You’re gonna have to earn what you get from them and they are hard players to play against in the defensive zone.…
The Leafs have a two day respite before a stretch of three games in four days. The Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins make their final visits to the ACC on Wednesday and Friday and Toronto travels down the QEW to face the Buffalo Sabres in a rare Saturday night road game.
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The Leafs are once again shuttling waiver exempt players to the Toronto Marlies, as the club demoted Sam Carrick, Josh Leivo and Stuart Percy to their American Hockey League affiliate on Monday.
With the Leafs inactive the next two days and the Marlies not in game action until Friday in Rochester, the move is clearly another instance of Toronto saving a few thousand dollars on the salary cap by demoting the players on paper only(don’t laugh at this, the LA Kings could not call up a defenseman because they would have been over the cap by $160).
Carrick and Leivo will likely be recalled for the game against the Bruins, as Daniel Winnik will miss at least one more game for following the league’s concussion protocol and injured forwards Joffrey Lupul, David Booth and Brandon Kozun are not close to returning, while Percy may have to wait until Saturday to be called up.
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