Jones, Maple Leafs thrash Penguins, 7-0 Pens have no answers in shutout loss

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In Toronto, the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins ran into a buzz saw on Saturday night in a 7-0 shellacking at the hands of the Maple Leafs.

Martin Jones made 38 saves for his first shutout of the campaign.

“It was a pretty impressive game, top to bottom, start to finish,” Jones said. “That’s an effort we can definitely build off of. Lot of positives out of tonight.

“We were just solid honestly. I wasn’t asked to do anything too crazy out there, just play solid, make the saves I was supposed to make and the guys were really good in front of the net. Our penalty kill was really good when we needed it, we were just really solid.”

The Maple Leafs scored three times in each of the first two periods.

In the opening stanza, Matthew Knies opened the scoring with just under two minutes gone in the game for a 1-0 lead.

Mitchell Marner pushed the advantage to 2-0 midway through the period.

If it felt like the house was falling in on the Pens, it was.

Bobby McMann expanded the lead to 3-0 at 18:25.

“I just wanted that puck in the slot,” McMann said. “I knew I had some time there. Bertuzzi made a nice play and then I saw it hit the mesh. A bit of relief came over me and then just more excitement and emotion I think.”

The Maple Leafs improved to 16-6-6.

It was more of the same in the middle frame,Max Domi scored at 2:28 after skkating circles around the Penguins’ defense for a 4-0 lead.

“You can’t chase the game against them,” the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby said. “You give them room and you open up, you’re going to pay. I thought we got behind there and tried to force things to get back in it, and that’s what happens.”

Toronto added a power play marker by John Tavares at 4:20 of the second to balloon the lead to 5-0.

A second power play strike, this one by Noah Gregor, pushed the advantage to 6-0 at 14:04.

The Penguins dropped to 13-13-3.

“We just didn’t play very well,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “I’ll certainly dissect it. I’m not sure quite yet how I’ll respond to it. It’s a humbling experience when we didn’t perform to our expectations, and it’s disappointing. We’re all in this together. We’ve got to figure this out.”

Tyler of the third period on a 2-on-1 when he tapped in a cross-crease pass from Tyler Bertuzzi scored at 14:19 of the third period to put a merciful end to the offense in the 7-0 final count.

“I think it just speaks volumes to the depth of our group and the character as well,” Domi said. “Big picture, we’re trying to get working towards something when the playoffs come around and everyone can step up on any given night. We’ll need four lines to achieve our goal, so it was a good opportunity for a lot of guys tonight and we made the most of it.”

Tristan Jarry got the start for the Pens, he yielded four goals into the middle frame, making 10 saves before getting the hook.

Alex Nedeljkovic made 18 saves in a mop up role.

“It’s a long year,” Pittsburgh’s Erik Karlsson said. “You play 82 games and you are not going to feel very good all of those nights, and when you don’t, you’ve got to find a way to bring something. We can’t just be satisfied with being out there and being in the right spot. You’ve still got to contribute whether that’s with the puck or without the puck, and today we didn’t do that consistently throughout the lineup. It started right away. It was a tough night for us, obviously, and we were kind of deflated halfway through the game.”