In Toronto, the Maple Leafs skated to a 5-2 win over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.
Toronto took a 3-1 lead in the first period and cruised to the win, with the Canes seemingly baffled by the Leafs skating.
Ilya Samsonov made 31 saves in the Toronto win.
The Maple Leafs improved to 41-18-9.
“For the most part, I thought we did a really good job defensively and I thought we moved the puck really well coming out of our end tonight, which has been an issue for us in recent games,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “And tonight we are playing against a team that’s maybe the hardest in the League to come out of your zone against.”
Zach Aston-Reese, who hit for a double in the win, gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead in the first period.
“It definitely felt good,” Aston-Reese said. “It’s always easy to play the rest of the game when you score on your first shift. They were pretty easy goals for me to put in. [Erik] Gustafsson with a great shot [to deflect], a great move by him too with that little shimmy at the top to get free, and then [Sam] Lafferty with a great sauce pass. I was hoping for the third but I’m happy with the night.”
Mitchell Marner skated around the Carolina defenders on the right boards and drifted to the net for a 2-0 lead to Toronto.
The Hurricanes dropped to 44-15-8, and failed to put any distance between themselves and second place atop the Metropolitan Division.
Brady Skjei trimmed the deficit to 2-1 on a goal at 14:37 of the first.
The Maple Leafs reclaimed the two0goal advantage three minutes later on a power play marker from Auston Matthews.
Carolina was scoreless in three power play chances.
“A team with that skill level, you just can’t be giving them chances, and we gave them, I feel like every chance we gave them, it was a Grade A chance that ended up in the back of our net,” Carolina forward Jordan Martinook said. “You’ve got to be able to stick with your game plan and just stay tight, stay above people, don’t let their skilled guys get behind you, and we let that happen too many times tonight.”
In the middle frame, Martin Necas cut the deficit to one goal, 3-2, for the Hurricanes.
Aston-Reese added his double in the second period for a 4-2 lead coming out of the middle stanza.
The Maple Leafs’ Morgan Rielly connected in the ninth minute of the third period for the 5-2 final.
“It’s great when those guys are able to get on the board and score and be a part of the offense. It’s awesome for our group,” Rielly said. “I think our guys really feed off it. They do a lot for our team that goes unnoticed and untalked about.”
Pyotr Kochetkov made 19 saves in the Carolina loss.
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