Maple Leafs finish West Coast road trip on the right foot, beating Ducks 3-2 Leafs stretch lead atop Atlantic table

The Maple Leafs would end their West Coast road trip with a 3-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks.

With the Montreal Canadiens doing the Leafs a huge favor earlier in the day, beating the Florida Panthers, Toronto would have a great opportunity to take a multi-point lead in first place of the Atlantic Division. 

This would be a must-win game for the Leafs, as the team will still need to play Florida twice, so securing points against a Ducks team that sits at the bottom of the league could be crucial, and that is what Toronto was able to do. 

Matthew Knies would get the scoring started in the first, but do to a coach’s challenge on a potential high stick, which would sound familiar to Leafs fans, this call wouldn’t go Toronto’s way and the cal would be overturned, keeping the game tied 0-0. 

With under a minute to play, Max Domi would get the first goal of the game on a fantastic solo effort to net where he was able to put the puck behind Lukas Dostal on the backhand. 

“Just a rush play, got a little lucky but we’ll take it,” Domi said, talking about what he saw on his goal. 

In an inconsistent season, this would only be Domi’s eighth goal of the year, but he has picked up his play coming back from the Four Nations Face-Off break, looking to get hot before the post-season.   

In a pretty uneventful first period, the Leafs would head to the locker room up 1-0, looking to continue the scoring in the middle frame.  

Early in the second period, Mitch Marner would have an opportunity on a breakaway where he would be able to convert on the chance, getting his 23rd goal of the season and giving the Leafs a comfortable 2-0 lead. 

 Not soon after the goal that would give the Leafs a lead by two, Ducks forward Leo Carlsson, who has been red hot as of late, would be able to cut Toronto’s lead in half. 

This goal would give Carlsson his 20th of the year and his 12th since returning from the Four Nations Face-Off tournament.  

The Leafs, heading into the intermission with a one-goal advantage, would look to close out the game in the third. 

To start the final period of play, the Ducks would get an early power play where Sam Colangelo would tap in his own rebound for his seventh goal of the season, and would tie the game up at two apiece. 

With half the period left to play, A fantastic shift from the Leafs’ fourth line would be rewarded, as Steven Lorentz would tip one past Dostal, giving the Blue-and-White a 3-2 lead. 

With a push from Anaheim trying to get a late equalizer, the Leafs would lock down the rest of the game, closing out their three-game road trip with a win and five of the available six points secured.  

Leafs Head Craig Berube had a chance to talk about how he felt his team played in the final game of the team’s road trip. 

“I thought the team competed hard tonight, I thought we were a little tired, a little gassed,” Berube said. “But we did a good job defending, I thought that we did what we had to do to win the game.” 

With yesterday night’s victory, the Leafs would find themselves three points up on the Florida, extending their lead for first in the Atlantic. 

The Leafs will head back home to face off against the Panthers on Wednesday in one of the biggest games of the season for the Blue-and-White. The Leafs have a chance to move up on the Cats and look even more likely to conquer the division.