This Original Six battle on Hockey Night in Canada turned into an 11-goal barnburner.
While the Leafs‘ play wasn’t always pretty, five unanswered goals in the third period are almost always enough to overcome any sloppiness in the preceding 40 minutes.
Here is tonight’s game in 10:
1. The Leafs did not exactly start this game on time. With Morgan Rielly caught deep on a turnover high in the offensive zone, Dylan Larkin scored just 75 seconds in on a partial breakaway off of a nice pass from Vladislav Namestnikov. At the first commercial break, Detroit held a 7-2 shot advantage over a Leafs team that looked half asleep.
Fortunately, the Leafs manufactured a response. Ondrej Kase nearly tied the game up when play resumed. Pierre Engvall, one of Toronto’s best players in the period, didn’t capitalize on his first high-danger scoring chance of the period, but he tied things up with three-and-a-half minutes to play in the opening frame.
The goal itself wasn’t pretty, but Engvall transitioned the puck all the way down the ice from deep in the defensive zone to get the play started. Rielly threw a weak backhand shot towards the slot, where Engvall was rewarded for driving to the net.
Engvall also made a nice defensive play to break up a potential odd-man rush earlier in the frame, so it was a well-earned reward on the scoreboard. The Leafs were outshot 15-9 in the opening frame despite zero penalties for either team, but Petr Mrazek managed to keep the game tied.
2. Much like the first period, the Leafs failed to start the middle frame on time. TJ Brodie’s breakout pass went right to a Red Wings player in the neutral zone before Vladislav Namestnikov scored just 76 seconds in off of a scramble in front. Tyler Bertuzzi then doubled the lead just 55 seconds later when Brodie took away the pass on a 2-on-1 and Bertuzzi roofed the puck over Mrazek’s glove.
You would think that two quick goals against would wake the Leafs up, but Lucas Raymond just missed making it 4-1 a couple of minutes later. It looked like the Red Wings were on the power play up until the period’s first commercial break. Rielly and Brodie were on the ice for all four of the game’s first four goals, three of which were against Toronto.
Down two, the Leafs finally started to gain some momentum about halfway through the second. William Nylander drew a tripping call in the neutral zone to draw the first power play of the night before Auston Matthews had a good chance on the man advantage.
While that power play came up empty-handed, a line of Michael Bunting, David Kampf, and Ilya Mikheyev jumped over the boards afterward and brought the game to within one. After some good cycle time, Bunting nicely redirected Justin Holl’s point shot from the high slot.
Toronto came close to tying the game up soon after. Bunting, Matthews, and Rielly didn’t convert on a 3-on-1 before Marner and Kampf failed to take advantage of their own odd-man rush.
The Red Wings ended up scoring the game’s next goal after the Leafs took a sloppy too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty, leading to Larkin’s second of the game thanks to a power-play one-timer.
The score remained 4-2 into the second intermission, but the final minutes of the frame were far from uneventful. Both goalies made multiple good saves that bailed out their defenders, and we got to see a scrum in the final moments, featuring — unsurprisingly – Michael Bunting in the middle of it for the Leafs.
3. The third period started just like the other two with Dylan Larkin’s line generating plenty of chances in the opening minute. Fortunately, the Red Wings didn’t score 75 seconds into the period this time!
The game finally slowed down a bit, and it wasn’t until around the halfway mark when we finally saw the puck cross the goal line. A strong shift from the reunited Bunting, Matthews, and Marner line created the goal, with Bunting picking up his second of the night on a tip in front. It was fully “game on” with the score at 4-3 and 10 minutes left to play.
Sheldon Keefe reverting to Toronto’s usual lines seemed to be the spark the team needed. The Tavares line spent the majority of their next shift in the offensive zone before the Matthews line jumped on and scored again.
Guess who? With his hometown of Scarborough hosting Hockey Day in Canada, Michael Bunting completed the hat-trick to tie this game at 4-4. Marner was incredible on the shift, setting up Bunting for two high-danger chances and weaving his way past multiple defenders to pick up the assist.
The Leafs then went for the throat. Matthews nearly scored a go-ahead goal with a little over four minutes to play before Engvall set up Spezza for a good chance shortly after.
It ended up being an unlikely hero for the Leafs who scored the game-winner: Rasmus Sandin picked up his first goal of the season off of a great set-up from John Tavares with under three minutes to play.
The Leafs nearly blew the lead within a minute; Lucas Raymond’s point shot deflected off of Brodie’s chest and hit the cross-bar. Fortunately, Robby Fabbri took a hooking penalty right after and Mitch Marner capitalized with an empty-net goal.
With 11 seconds to play, Tavares tacked on a second empty netter to make it 7-4 Leafs as your final score.
4. The Leafs went with the “balanced” lineup approach again tonight, with Auston Matthews between Michael Bunting and Ondrej Kase, John Tavares between Ilya Mikheyev and Mitch Marner, and David Kampf between Alex Kerfoot and William Nylander. Overall, these lines played fairly well against Anaheim, although John Gibson prevented them from scoring an even-strength goal. It was worth another look, but Keefe went back to his normal lineup by the third period with the team chasing the game.
Facing a multi-goal deficit, it’s not surprising Marner returned to Matthews’ wing, but we’ll see if Keefe really has the resolve to actually keep the Bunting, Matthews, and Marner line apart for Monday’s game against New Jersey. The trio was dominant in their period together, and the Tavares line also played better as soon as Kerfoot was back on the left side.
5. Petr Mrazek made his sixth start of the season tonight against the team that drafted him in the city he called home for six seasons. Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly go according to plan early on.
The first goal against was off of a nice move and finish from Larkin in alone. The second wasn’t really on him, either, and the third came off of a nice shot from Bertuzzi. It would have been nice if he came up with a save on one of those goals, but there wasn’t a real softy among them. Larkin’s power-play goal went off of the edge of his pad and in, which I saw as his worst goal against of the night.
It wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch, but I’m going to give Mrazek some credit tonight. He made some big saves late in the second period to keep the Leafs in it before stopping all seven shots in the third period. He wasn’t amazing in this one, but he stayed in the fight and was good enough to pick up the win.
He’s now 4-2-0 on the season, and one of those losses came in Arizona where Karel Vejmelka turned into prime Dominik Hasek for a night. With a back-to-back coming up against New Jersey, we’ll see Mrazek back in action as soon as Tuesday night.
6. The fourth line was great tonight. All three members led Toronto in expected goals percentage (xGF%). Engvall got on the scoreboard and came awfully close to a multi-goal game, while Spezza nearly scored the winner late in the third. It is the only line that didn’t get broken up after 40 minutes.
The fourth line has been great as of late whenever Engvall is on it but terrible without him. I’m not comparing Engvall to McDavid or MacKinnon, but Spezza and Simmonds really benefit from his transition skill and two-way game.
Engvall put five shots on goal and now has five points in his past five games. I understand that he’s big and not all that physical, but I don’t want to hear any complaints about Engvall for a while. He’s a valuable piece of this roster.
7. I have to bring up the contract again: Michael Bunting’s cap hit is just $950k through next season. Toronto’s front office found the bargain of the offseason here.
He’s been an excellent fit on the team’s top line. The Leafs had a major hole to fill when Zach Hyman left for Edmonton on a big-ticket deal, but Bunting has gone a long way in making up the difference, including a 24-goal pace in the first half of the season after tonight’s hat trick. His courage, instincts, and touch around the net are a fantastic complement to two world-class players.
On top of that, he’s helped make up for the loss in the fan-favourite department; we’ll see plenty of Bunting jerseys around the city of Toronto sooner rather than later given his style of play. The scrum at the end of the second period was a small thing, but it’s important to have players that refuse to go away quietly and remain competitively engaged even when a game isn’t going the team’s way.
In the preseason, it looked like Bunting was set to start the season on the fourth line. Nick Ritchie was given the first chance in the top-six with a cap hit that suggested he was the “Plan A” to help replace Hyman. I don’t think the Leafs even expected that the Bunting signing would work out this well, but it’s a huge development that one of their options has been such a boon to the top six.
8. With Jake Muzzin out of the lineup again, the Leafs partnered Sandin with Holl and Dermott with Liljegren for the second consecutive game. Surprisingly, it was the Rielly-Brodie pairing that was on for all three goals against at even strength; they also came close to giving up a fourth in the final minutes.
Given how strong the Rielly-Brodie pairing has been this season, I don’t think we can read too much into tonight. It wasn’t a particularly strong night for any of the pairings; Liljegren had a couple of bad giveaways early on, and the Sandin-Holl pairing got hemmed in their own end a few times.
That said, I wouldn’t say that the bottom two pairings were completely terrible, and it was nice to see Sandin rewarded with the game-winning goal. He hit the post multiple times the other night and had somehow gone seven straight games without a point. It’s going to be interesting to see who comes out of the lineup when Muzzin returns, but the high quantity of games coming up should lead to a regular rotation.
9. The Leafs failed to start each period on time tonight. I’m not going to call this a trend — they’ve had plenty of early leads lately — but Sheldon Keefe and the coaching staff can’t possibly be happy with their starts to periods tonight. Maybe going back to their normal lineup will help, but more than any line configuration, I think they were simply half-asleep tonight for much of the first 40 minutes. On the bright side, it was nice to watch the other team blow a two-goal lead for once.
The Red Wings are better than they used to be, but they’re still a bottom-10 club by most metrics. The Leafs are expected to outplay them, and while they’ll take the two points, they didn’t exactly do that tonight. They ended up winning the shots on goal count 37 to 35, but score effects played a major role in that, and they waited until halfway through the third period to play their best hockey.
It’s no secret that the Leafs will be judged by their playoff success; it’s tough to call tonight’s performance a step in the right direction in terms of the process they’re looking to achieve toward that end.
With Bunting locking down his spot at the top of the lineup, Ilya Mikheyev and Alex Kerfoot earning Keefe’s appreciation in their roles, and Engvall playing so well down the lineup, I have no idea who would sit if the team acquired a forward for the left side. Adding a defenseman like Manson might be addressing the biggest need at this point, but we haven’t been able to watch the Muzzin-Holl pairing much lately, and their play in February and March will be a big determining factor in the direction Dubas takes.
Who knows if Anaheim — currently first in the Pacific — will even end up selling at the deadline or if the Leafs are willing to pay the price if they do. It feels like we’ve been hearing about Manson as a big-bodied, defensively-sound option for their right side for years now. They probably could have used him tonight.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
