In Toronto Monday night, the visiting Los Angeles Kings were facing their biggest test of the young season and the Maple Leafs’ Frederik Andersen made sure they failed the test with 36 saves in 3-2 win that ended the Kings season-opening win streak.
The Leafs improved to 7-2-0 on the year.
Patrick Marleauscored the game-winner early in the third period to give Toronto a 3-1 lead at the time.
“It’s important to win. When you drop the ball like we did against Ottawa (6-3 loss on Saturday), I’m not taking anything away from Ottawa, but we were no good and when you do that, you want to respond,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought we responded tonight, but I also thought it was important against a team that hadn’t lost (in regulation) and was playing well. I thought it was a good matchup for us tonight and an important game to find a way to play right.”
Matt Martin and Tyler Bozak also scored for the Maple Leafs in the win.
“A few games together now, you really start to understand where Mitch (Marner) is looking and what he’s trying to do and you want to get him the puck as quick as possible and just try to find some space because he’s so good at making plays. He’s one of the elite playmakers in the League,” Leafs’ Matt Martin said after the win.
LA got goals from Adrian Kempe and Trevor Lewis; Lewis scored just past the halfway point o the third to make the final minutes of regulation tight.
“The start was what we wanted, but we just didn’t get rewarded in the first period. I think we had some good looks,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. “That first power play was good, we were moving the puck. We got some chances 5-on-5 too, but we just couldn’t put it in the net. They got that deflection goal and it’s a bit of a momentum swing. The first period was good, we just didn’t cash in.”
[WATCH: All Kings vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Jonathan Quick made 30 saves in the loss as the Kings dropped to 6-1-1.
“I think we did some good things tonight, but there’s some areas we need to clean up a bit. We turned pucks over down low in our zone that I think could have been exits, so I’d like to certainly get that cleaned up,” LA head coach John Stevens said after the tough road loss. “Special teams, we thought we would be a factor tonight. We scored a shorthanded goal, gave up a power-play goal, so we’d like to get our power play going again and clean up our penalty kill a little bit.”
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