In Toronto Wednesday night, the Maple Leafs brushed aside the New York Islanders in a 5-0 win.
Frederik Andersen made 28 saves for the shutout.
The Leafs’ Travis Dermott and Justin Holl both scored in the win and for each of them it was their first career NHL goal.
Frederik Andersen made 28 saves in 5-0 shutout of the Islanders Wednesday night – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“Good for those kids. You don’t get to score your first NHL goal very often, one time,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said. “It’s great if your dad’s here (like Travis’ was) to see it. Between periods I saw a few tears, which was nice to see as well. It’s not just an individual accomplishment; it’s a family accomplishment, so they should be proud.”
Toronto struck twice in each of the first two periods to build a 4-0 lead as they held the Isles at bay.
“We worked and we didn’t succeed,” Isles head coach Doug Weight said. “They had a lot more jump than we did. If anyone knows how important it is, it’s the guys in that room. This wasn’t an effort that was lax or lazy, it wasn’t. It’s just disappointing. It’s tough.”
Kasperi Kapanen, Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner also struck for Leafs goals as Toronto’s goals came off nifty deflections and rebounds.
“I always thought growing up, it would probably be some rebound or go off someone’s shin pad, certainly no highlight-reel goal,” Dermott said of his fist NHL goal. “It was set up perfectly and Willy gave me a perfect pass. There was nothing I could do but miss the net, and luckily enough I put it in.”
Toronto improved to 29-18-5 with the win.
“It’s almost surreal, it just happens, and then I was like, ‘Wait, did that really just happen?’ and then you’re like, ‘Nice, it did,'” Holl said of his first NHL goal. “So that was nice, and it was a big win, it was nice to contribute.”
[WATCH: All Islanders vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Thomas Greiss made 45 saves in taking the loss and was under siege
“The way we’ve played the last few nights isn’t even close to where we need to be to get where we want to get to. We have a great group in here. It’s hard to be at a certain standard every night, especially in this league with how tight and competitive it is. We have to be better,” the Islanders’ John Tavares said after the loss.
The Islanders dropped to 25-22-5 with the loss.
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