In Toronto, Jack Campbell made 31 saves and the Maple Leafs edged out the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1, on opening night for both teams.
“Any game day, you’re still dialed in and the nerves are still there,” Campbell said. “When it’s a sold-out barn though, it’s so exciting and it makes it that much sweeter when you put the work in, everybody contributes, and you get a big two points.”
William Nylander scored the game-winner with 66 seconds gone in the third period to break a 1-1 tie.
“He was on fire, thank god he was back there for us,” Nylander said. “It could have been 2, or 3 to nothing for Montreal. We came out pretty slow. We got our legs going later in that period but Jack was on fire tonight.”
Jonathan Drouin staked the Habs to an early 1-0 lead.
“I thought the first 10 minutes, we were not good,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It took us a while to really get comfortable in the game but from then on, I thought the effort was really strong. Guys worked and competed. It was a tight game right to the end so I’m happy that we found our way out on the right side of it.”
The Canadiens were scoreless in four chances on the power play.
The Leafs replied to that early goal with a screen shot from Pierre Engvall to tie the game at 1-1 in the opening frame.
Montreal squandered a two-man advantage late in the third period.
“We put a lot of pressure but I didn’t like our pace, our intensity,” Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “I think that was a difference tonight for sure. Having a 5-on-3 in the third period and trailing by one, you need to capitalize on that.”
The Maple Leafs were 1-for-3 with the extra skater.
Jake Allen made 28 saves in the loss.
“I thought we had our spurts in the game,” Allen said. “I thought we started really well, our first 10 minutes was really solid in that first period and we had some jump. There’s some things we all definitely want to improve on including myself but we didn’t get the win and that was the main thing. They have elite players on that team, high end talent and whenever you have that, you’ve got a good chance for success.”
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