The Maple Leafs‘ seven-game win streak was unfortunately put to an end when they took on the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, February 27th at the Scotiabank Arena. Mason Morelli recorded his second NHL goal and Jonathan Marchessault scored twice in the Golden Knights’ 6-2 victory. Not only did Toronto’s win streak end, Mitch Marner’s 10-game point streak ended at 21 points (three goals, 18 assists) and Auston Matthews’ six-game point streak ended at 14 points (10 goals, four assists).
Golden Knights lineup against the Maple Leafs:
Brisson – Karlsson – Marchessault
Barabashev – Stephenson – Amadio
Cotter – Roy – Kolesar
Morelli – Froese – Rempal
Martinez – Pietrangelo
McNabb – Theodore
Hague – Whitecloud
Hill
Thompson
Maple Leafs lineup against the Golden Knights:
Knies – Matthews – Marner
Bertuzzi – Domi – Nylander
McMann – Tavares – Robertson
Holmberg – Kampf – Reaves
Brodie – Rielly
Benoit – McCabe
Giordano – Lagesson
Samsonov
Jones
The first period stayed completely scoreless.
The Golden Knights took the first lead at 10:49 of the second period when Ivan Barabashev scored his 14th goal of the season off a stretch pass from Michael Amadio in the neutral zone… Barabashev scored on a breakaway. Mason Morelli recorded his second NHL goal in the slot, deflecting a shot from Shea Theodore, who was at the point at 7:40. Scoring his fourth in the past two games, Tyler Bertuzzi put the Maple Leafs on the board at 2:15. Bertuzzi shot from the bottom of the right face-off dot after he had taken a pass from Jake McCabe, and the puck deflected off Alec Martinez’s skate. William Karlsson pushed it to 3-1 at 48.8 of the middle frame with a one-timer off a pass from Jonathan Marchessault from the left hash marks.
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At 9:10 of the third, Jonathan Marchessault extended the lead to 4-1, scoring off a rebound of William Karlsson’s shot that had hit both posts and got back into the slot. Marchessault got his 31st goal of the season, an NHL career high. Ryan Reaves cuts it 4-2 on a 2-on-1 off a pass from Pontus Holmberg for his third goal of the season. Marchessault got his second of the night with an empty-netter… Nicolas Roy converted a rebound for the 6-2 final.
Tyler Bertuzzi on Toronto’s 6-2 loss against Vegas: “We just weren’t at our best. We weren’t playing smart with the puck, didn’t have enough shots either, and kind of crashing the net, that’s how we kind of capitalized in Vegas and we didn’t do that,” – “They were a lot better. They were on the hunt on the floor check. We actually had a decent start and kind of dipped a little bit from there, and they capitalized. We couldn’t get our momentum back.”
Notes:
– William Karlsson had a goal and an assist, Shea Theodore recorded three assists… Adin Hill made 29 saves for Vegas.
Karlsson extended his point streak to five games with seven points (four goals, three assists)… Jonathan Marchessault scored 30 goals in a season twice (2016-17, Florida Panthers; 2021-22, Vegas Golden Knights).
– The Golden Knights have become the fastest team in NHL history to 300 wins (514 games), surpassing the Edmonton Oilers (542)… Vegas is 300-166-48 in seven seasons.
– Ilya Samsonov made 26 saves for Toronto… Samsonov has won six straight starts for the Maple Leafs, dating to February 7th.
– William Nylander got the secondary assist on Tyler Bertuzzi’s goal to extend his point streak to eight games (six goals, eight assists)
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