In Toronto, Matt Murray made 18 saves and the Maple Leafs downed the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1, on Tuesday.
“We were carrying the game through the first two periods, a lot of puck possession, a lot of zone time and obviously a ton of shots, and they weren’t getting much, so I thought we played a real solid game all the way through tonight and that’s a big reason why they weren’t able to generate much, especially through the first two periods,” Murray said.
Toronto took a 2-0 lead in the game on a first period goal from Michael Bunting, and Auston Matthews‘ strike in the middle frame.
“It’s a nice win for us,” Matthews said. “That’s a really good team over there, so I think you kind of have to expect there’s going to be chances both ways and we made good on some of ours and obviously some big stops in there as well.”
The Maple Leafs improved to 20-7-6.
“I took a little different path to make the NHL, six years in the American [Hockey] League, or whatever it was, over 300 games,” Bunting said. “I’m proud of my path and the way I got here, and I just want to keep building off it.
Vladislav Namestnikov was the lone striker for the Lighting, his goal cut the Leafs’ lead to 2-1 in the third period.
“I don’t know what part of the game they reinvented that had us perform like that,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Note to self, don’t come to Toronto three days before the game. That was painfully evident because we definitely did not show up tonight.”
Tampa dropped to 20-10-1.
“We weren’t in the right spot in our coverage and it opened up a big hole for him that he jumped through, and that certainly was a huge moment in the game,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said.
The Maple Leafs sealed the win with two empty-net goals.
“I thought our guys played really well,” Keefe said. “Even in the third period, I thought we started a little bit hesitant early in the period but found our legs and just got back to playing, which is what we talked about after the second period. We were in a good spot for a good reason, let’s just stay with it.”
Pierre Engvall hit the first at 1:46 for a 3-1 lead, and William Nylander scored the second with 32 seconds left.
“I thought our guys played really well,” Keefe said. “Even in the third period, I thought we started a little bit hesitant early in the period but found our legs and just got back to playing, which is what we talked about after the second period. We were in a good spot for a good reason, let’s just stay with it.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves in the Tampa loss.
“That’s the same team we’ve played and the exact style and the exact same everything with less players,” Cooper said. “It’s the NHL, I get it, there’s 82 games, you’re not going to have your best every single night, but we started trying to manufacture things out of nothing and we were just giving them opportunities. Everything we talked about doing, I’m not sure we did at all tonight. That was a complete game, I’ll tell you that, a complete bag of you-know-what, that’s what that was.”
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