Maple Leafs punch ticket

In Montreal, the Toronto Maple Leafs finally clinched a place in the postseason on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over the Canadiens.

“The guys have worked hard through a very challenging and unique season,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I think you do have to acknowledge that we spoke about it before the game, about let’s get it done here tonight. We acknowledged that after the game, but we also have acknowledged that we’re working towards bigger things.

“It’s a nice accomplishment, but we’re going to be continuing to work towards building our team to be ready to play when it counts the most.”

Jack Campbell made 32 saves to get the win for the Leafs.

Auston Matthews picked up his 35th goal of the season in the win.

“We’re playing with a couple of living legends,” Matthews said. “It’s pretty awesome at this stage in their career how passionate they are about the team, about winning, about performing every night. … It’s been awesome to have [Spezza] here for the second year and play with a guy like ‘Jumbo,’ two guys that have a lot of history in this game. To witness them accomplish what they’ve accomplished, obviously, tonight was a big night for both of them.”

Nick Suzuki scored the Habs lone goal.

“If you look at the games that we’ve played against them, they’ve been really close games,” the Canadiens’ Josh Anderson said. “And a lot of those games I do believe we were the better team. But then again, we just got to work on some of those mistakes and correct those down the road.

“But like I said from Day One, I believe in this team, and we’ve got a great group of guys in there and we can do some really good things. We’ve just got to put it on the ice and get through this together.”

William Nylander opened the scoring with a power play goal in the first period.

Jake Muzzin and Adam Brooks  also scored for the Maple Leafs.

Joe Thornton picked up his 1,100th point in the NHL with an assist.

“We’ve worked hard to create an identity,” Toronto’s Jason Spezza said of his line with Thornton and Brooks. “We know what works for us, we know what doesn’t. We’re seeing each other well. We’re doing a good job of trying to spread the zone and use our bodies. Brooks is a really smart player. He complements us really well. It’s good to have something to build off of. We’ve had a few games together here and just keep moving forward.”

Jake Allen made 25 saves in another loss with no offensive support.

“We’ve got to play a full 60 (minutes) against those guys,” Suzuki said. “If we did meet them in the playoffs, playing like that won’t win us any games. So we’re worried about ourselves right now and we’ve got to fix what was wrong tonight.”