On Friday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs improved to 26-10-2 with a 4-2 win over the Blue Jackets, in Columbus.
Garret Sparks made 27 saves to get the win.
John Tavares struck for two goals for the Leafs.
“We played a pretty solid game,” Tavares said. “[Sparks] was solid when we needed him to be. Penalty kill was really sharp.”
Mitchell Marner and Frederik Gauthier also scored for Toronto.
“That’s probably the fastest team we’ve played all year,” Blue Jackets defenseman Ryan Murray said. “They were flying a little bit. We played okay but we’ve played better.
“You’ve got to take away their time and space defensively. Given time they are going to make some plays.”
Tavares has 26 goals on the season.
“I’m just trying to play … and be good in all areas and just be prepared to capitalize on chances, create and be hard to defend,” Tavares said. “Playing with the players I play with you’re going to get opportunities.”
Nick Foligno and Artemi Panarin scored for the Blue Jackets.
“They were obviously well-rested. We were coming off a game,” Foligno said. “They knew they had to come off the break the right way so they fed from their energy from probably having a few days off.”
Columbus dropped to 23-13-3 with the loss.
“We started better tonight, a lot better than I expected, to tell you the truth. It was nice to score early,” Toronto head coach Mike Babcock said.
[WATCH:Â All Maple Leafs vs. Blue Jackets highlights]
Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves in the loss.
“Out of the last four games, even tonight, I thought it was our best game. I thought we did some good things. We had some zone time, generated some chances. Their goalie played well. Give them some credit but some of our chances, especially from the back end, were shot wide,” Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella said after the loss.
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