The Toronto Maple Leafs are just fine and the reports of their demise were greatly exaggerated, at least for now.
On Saturday night, Michael Hutchinson made 33 saves to shut out the visiting New York Islanders, 3-0.
“I felt really relaxed out there,” Hutchinson s said. “I thought it was good to build off my wins against Detroit and New Jersey recently. It was a lot of fun out there tonight. The guys played extremely hard and we did a really good job defensively and made them have to generate chances.”
Auston Matthews scored his 28th of the season.
“They forecheck and play defense extremely well,” Matthews said. “They don’t give up much so when you get those chances, you have to make the most of them and we were able to do that today. It’s good for us to play in these types of games down the stretch. We made the most of what we had, and we made sure we were defending well and taking care of the puck in the neutral zone.”
The Isles are 2-4-1 in their last seven matches.
“It’s frustrating, but we did have our opportunities and if we bury one or two of those, it’s a different game,” the Islanders’ Anders Lee said. “All in all, it was a solid effort. We just have to find a way to put the puck in the net. If you look at our chances, a couple of posts, 2-on-1’s, I had one in front. It’s just not coming easy and that can get frustrating, but I think we did a good job sticking with our game. You’ve got to give Hutchinson credit, he made some phenomenal saves.”
Pierre Engvall opened the scoring with all the offense Hutchinson would need.
“I just tried to hold on to it for a second to get the goalie moving and I found a spot there,” Engvall said. “Obviously, [Kapanen] made a play there that was pretty good. Every time I see him go to the net with that speed, I’m just trying to catch up and be ready to shoot. When I saw him make that move, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a sick play.'”
Zach Hyman added an empty net goal for the final score.
[WATCH:Â All Islanders vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves in the loss.
“I think it was a pretty well played hockey game by both teams,” the Islanders’ Ryan Pulock said. “They were able to capitalize on their chances and we weren’t able to do that. We created some good chances ourselves, but their goalie played well. That’s the way it works sometimes.”
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