The Toronto Maple Leafs began their four-game road trip against the Winnipeg Jets on the right foot, putting forth a solid defensive effort against a powerhouse Jets offense and getting goals from their top line and special teams in a 3-1 win at the Bell MTS Centre on Wednesday.
Auston Matthews scored his league leading 24th goal of the season, Zach Hyman and Alex Kerfoot scored, and Jack Campbell made 26 saves to move to perfect 7-0 record on the season, as the Leafs with the victory move three points ahead of Winnipeg for top spot in the North.
Toronto was successful in jumping on the road-weary Jets in their first home game in two weeks, getting goals from the top line of Hyman, Matthews and Mitch Marner in the first 11 minutes of the game. The Leafs did an effective checking job for most of the game, and added to their lead on Kerfoot’s short-handed breakaway goal late in the second, before Josh Morrissey scored on the power play to get Winnipeg on the board.
Campbell was very efficient in the contest, doing a good job of controlling rebounds and limiting chances, especially in the third period with the Jets pressing to get back into the game.
“I thought we defended a little bit too much, more than I would like to have to do in the third there. We’d like to spend more time with the puck in the offensive zone, but it’s a big road win here for us.” Leafs head Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “There’s a lot of things you could pick out about it that we could do better and we’ll certainly get to work at that tomorrow, but just focus on the fact that we had a really good start here to set us up for a chance to win the game and we did exactly that.”
Two areas of concern coming out of the game were the continuing struggles of the Leafs power play, which in spite of some lineup tinkering from Keefe still seemed out of sync and went 0 for 5 on the night and the health of Campbell, who said after the game that he felt good and hoped that he would be ready for Friday’s rematch with the Jets.
Keefe indicated on Wednesday morning that there should be more news regarding the health of Frederik Andersen, who is scheduled to see a specialist for his lingering lower body injury.
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It’s game day! The Leafs will take on the Oilers again tonight.
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