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Marner Extends Point Streak, Ties Club Record In Win Over Sharks

December 1, 2022, 4:18 PM ET [186 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs returned home after a very successful road trip and struggled to get on track in their second and final meeting with the San Jose Sharks, but Pierre Engvall’s goal with 2:27 left in the third period snapped a 1-1 tie to give the Leafs a 3-1 victory at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.



Auston Matthews scored a goal in his third straight and Mitch Marner scored into the empty net to tie the club record of 18 consecutive games with a point along with Eddie Olczyk and Darryl Sittler.

“I am happy for (Mitch). Somewhere along the way, you need things to work out for you and he has played a lot of great hockey for us. It was great to see him have that moment.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “You start to feel like maybe it is not going to happen, but he stayed with it and got it. It is an important goal. I don’t want to have to defend a one-goal lead to the very end, especially with (Erik Karlsson) out there. It is funny how it all played out, but it is an important goal.”



Ilya Samsonov played well in his first game in over three weeks, allowing only a second-period goal by Matt Nieto on 24 shots.

“It is not an easy start there with some of those looks,” Keefe said. (The Sharks) had a chance in the third period that was very similar to the one they scored on in the second in the crease, but he made the correction. He made a mistake on the first one, but he made the correction at a key moment. He was great. It was really good to have him back. For him to keep them at one, it gave us a chance to win.”



Toronto once again leaned heavily on their top four blueliners, as Mark Giordano, Justin Holl, and Rasmus Sandin played in excess of 20 minutes, and Timothy Liljegren skated just under 18 minutes, but with the last change and the ability to match up against particular lines, the bottom pairing of Mac Hollowell and Victor Mete played over 15 minutes.

On the injury front, the Leafs lost forward Calle Jarnkrok to a groin injury in the second period. Keefe after the game indicated that Jarnkrok will undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the injury, but that he expects the veteran winger to miss some time. Nick Robertson jumped up from the fourth line to take Jarnkrok’s spot and may get the first crack at playing in the top six alongside John Tavares when the club plays Tampa Bay for the first time on Saturday since their Game 7 loss in mid-May.

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