In Edmonton, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Michael Hutchinson made 31 saves and blanked the Oilers, 3-0, on Monday night.
“Coming out, when you’re playing the same team in these miniseries, it’s hard to beat a team twice in a row,” Hutchinson said. “For us to come out and battle like we did and get the result that we did, it was huge. It’s great to be able to celebrate with the boys with that win and just enjoy this moment.”
The Oilers dropped to 14-10-0.
“We’re in a little rut,” Edmonton head coach Dave Tippett said. “Teams get into a little rut, and it seems that nothing you shoot is going in the net, not even point shots or deflections. We can usually find one or two of those in a game, but it’s not going in for us right now.”
Zach Hyman got the offense started with the first goal of the game in the opening frame.
Hutchinson got the start Monday night because Jack Campbell  aggravated an old injury.
“Obviously, you go through your rehab and you go through your practice sessions, and he was feeling really good, but game conditions are a whole different beast, and it didn’t respond in a way that he or our training staff were hoping,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “So just being more cautious with it, but just hoping that another day here today, and tomorrow things will feel better. Just have to take it a day at a time.”
William Nylander and Morgan Rielly also scored in the first period barrage.
“I think our goalies played outstanding in both games, which helped [the shutouts] happen,” Nylander said. “We’ve been working on our defense, and it shows a little bit in these games, which is great.”
The Leafs improved to 17-4-2.
“Any time you get a shutout in the NHL, it’s a special moment,” Hutchinson said. “They don’t happen too often. It was a lot of fun watching [Campbell] get a shutout last game and coming off injury and playing well. For myself, I thought the guys battled and played hard in front of me all night tonight and made my job as easy as possible.”
Mikko Koskinen got the start and got the hook in the first intermission, he yielded all three goals from the Leafs and made seven saves.
“I think once they got up three, we were getting our looks, and whenever they get a chance, they just kind of throw it into the neutral zone and have their guys skate on to it,” Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “
For us, we have to get those pucks back. If our [defensemen] are going to put pucks on net, we have to find a way to get those loose pucks, maintain more [offensive] zone time and slowly break them down from there.”
Mike Smith made 13 saves in relief.
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