In Toronto, the Maple Leafs lost to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night, 4-1.
“I thought it was a complete game tonight, 60 minutes,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “That’s what we challenged the guys for, that’s what we needed against a team like that. It was great, a great effort.”
Arvid Soderblom made 36 saves in the Hawks win.
“Soderblom tonight was remarkable, especially at the end of the game,” Richardson said. “That’s a dangerous team down low, big bodies, but he’s a big body and he’s very solid on the posts. He came up really big for us.”
The game had featured the potential for Auston Matthews to score a third straight hat rick for the Leafs to to open the season. He was held scoreless on the night.
MacKenzie Entwistle scored at 2:59 of the first to give Chicago a 1-0 lead, it was his season debut.
“It was nice to get back in, nice to get in in my hometown,” said Entwisele. “I hadn’t played here yet, so it was nice to be in for sure.”
John Tavares was the lone striker for the Maple Leafs, his goal came at 5:15 of the first to tie the game, 1-1.
“The turnover stuff early on, the carelessness with the puck, it’s all our best players,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Really, really careless. So, that didn’t give us a chance to take a hold of the game, which you want to do be able to do on home ice. We weren’t able to take charge of the game, and then you let the opponent hang around. We’ve seen this movie before.
“You’re not getting power plays. When we started to get some momentum and life there, once they got their first goal and a couple penalties against us took away from our momentum.”
Corey Perry hit for a marker at 14:46 of the middle frame for a 2-1 lead to Chicago.
“I thought we were really sloppy with the puck in the first period, and then we got beat in transition in the second period,” Keefe said.
Tyler Johnson scored off the power play at 17:05 for a 3-0 advantage after two periods.
Taylor Raddysh hit an empty net for the 4-1 final at 19:54 of the third.
“It’s tough to go out there in the third when you are up by two, and especially against an offensive team like that where they have a ton of offensive power to create every shift,” Entwistle said. “It’s tough to go out there and play the exact same way you played the first two periods, [but] I thought we stuck to that. We had a lot of big blocks, Soderblom played amazing. It was awesome. It was fun.”
Joseph Woll made 27 saves in the Toronto loss.
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