In the two-game sweep of the NHL from Monday night, we start in Toronto, where Max Domi scored the first goal of the game for the Arizona Coyotes as they ended the night with a 4-3 win over their hosts, the Maple Leafs.
The goal was special for Domi as his father, Tie Domi, played in Toronto.
“It was a good feeling to help get the boys off on the right foot,” he said. “It was a big win. We came out of the gate flying and we played a full 60 minutes. It was good to see.
“It’s the NHL, so every game lives up to expectations. It’s a lot of fun out there and it’s even better when you are winning.”
Domi leads all rookies in scoring so far this season with 10 points on four goals.
“There are battles that happen below the top of the faceoff circles at both ends of the ice, and you’ve got to be hard in those battles if you expect to win,” Arizona coach Tippet said. “I thought our forwards did a good job below their hash marks and I thought our defense did another real good job around our net. That has been a strength of ours this year, our defense battling around our net, and they did a great job tonight.”
The Leafs fell to 0201 at home on the season and lost the game in the second period according to Mike Babcock.
“If I look at the whole game, the part that I didn’t like as a coach was in the second period; when things went bad on us, we didn’t respond,” Babcock said. “I don’t know if it’s the pressure of being here, or what it was, but I could feel it on the bench. We didn’t keep coming, which is disappointing for me.”
In Brooklyn, Monday, the New York Islanders’ Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves in a 4-0 shutout of the Calgary Flames.
“I think guys are doing a pretty good job out there as far as keeping [shots] on the outside,” Halak said. “If there’s any rebound or anything like that, they’re there. It’s always good when you can always count on the guys back there that they will do their job.”
Frans Nielsen scored twice and Mikhail Grabovski and Cal Clutterbuck added goals for the Isles.
Joni Ortio made 31 saves for the Flames who fell to 2-7-0 on the season; a very disappointing start for a team picked to challenge this year.
“We need to be consistent,” Flames coach Bob Hartley said. “That’s one thing … this league is too good to pick and choose when you’re going to be good.”
But the story line for the game was Halak’s performance.
“He’s played well,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said of Halak. “He made some big saves for us when we needed them. I thought we did a real good job, especially in the first and midway through the third, we held them in check pretty good. We got beat off the wall a couple of times, they had a couple of chances, but I thought our D-zone was really good tonight. We limited their chances.
“He’s a guy that gives us a chance to win. Our goalies have done a good job for us this year. He’s a focused guy. We didn’t want to rush him back. We wanted to make sure his conditioning was where it needed to be and he was feeling really good. It’s paying dividends right now for us.”
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