In Toronto, the Maple Leafs’ Kasperi Kapanen struck off a breakaway in extra time Tuesday night to give the home side a 3-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes.
“I think everybody here knows that’s my go-to move when I get a breakaway so I just decided to try it and hopefully it would go in, and it did,” Kapanen said. “We need these points, we need these extra points. At this point in the season with the standings, these are big points for us.”
Kasperi Kapanen scored the game-winner in OT for the Maple Leafs – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Jack Campbell made 35 saves to get the win.
“We did feel pretty confident. Jack felt very confident,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said about the goalie interference review. “When you look at it, it was as straightforward as you’re going to get for these types of calls.”
Christian Dvorak and Carl Soderberg were the Coyotes strikers.
“I thought we played a pretty solid game for the most part, it was a tough bounce there at the end,” Dvorak said. “It would have been nice to get that extra point. I think we’re playing a lot better now [in the past two games] than a few games ago so I think it’s a good sign but there’s not too many moral victories around here at this time of year.”
Zach Hyman potted both regulation goals for the Leafs.
“Not like this in the NHL but my last year in college I put up some points. I try not to think about that stuff, I just go out and play my game,” Hyman said about his offense. “I don’t think I’ve changed anything; I don’t want to lose who I am with my style and what type of game I play. Points come, I guess, if you’re just playing hard and become more confident with the puck.”
[WATCH: All Coyotes vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Adin Hill made 38 saves in the loss.
“It’s not too hard, you’re in the game still,” Hill said. “It [stinks] that we think we won there for a minute but that’s the way it goes, goalie interference and they called it back. But it was a hard-fought game, I thought we had a lot of jump in our step. I thought we played a good game all-around. It was honestly just a good hockey game, but it [stinks] that we came out one point short.”
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