The ice at Scotiabank Arena was a battleground on Thursday night, January 16th, as the Maple Leafs and Devils engaged in a back-and-forth thriller. Ultimately, it was Toronto who emerged victorious in overtime, 4-3, snapping their three-game losing streak while handing New Jersey their second straight loss. Nico Hischier found the back of the net twice while Jack Hughes had a three-point night, but the Maple Leafs, fueled by two goals each from Auston Matthews and William Nylander, ultimately prevailed in the hard-fought contest. Jacob Markstrom stood tall in the net for the Devils, turning aside 37 shots. The Maple Leafs head to Montreal on Saturday to take on the Canadiens, while the Devils go back to New Jersey to take on the Philadelphia Flyers.
Toronto Maple Leafs Lineup:
Knies – Matthews – Marner
McMann – Domi – Nylander
Pacioretty – Holmberg – Robertson
Lorentz – Kampf – Dewar
Rielly – Myers
McCabe – Tanev
Ekman-Larsson – Timmins
Woll
Hildeby
New Jersey Devils Lineup:
Palat – Hughes – Bratt
Meier – Hischier – Mercer
Cotter – Dowling – Tatar
MacDermid – Lazar – Bastian
Dillon – Hamilton
Siegenthaler – Kovacevic
Hughes – Pesce
Markstrom
Allen
Early into the opening 20, Jack Hughes struck to put the Devils ahead 1-0 with his 18th goal of the season at 17:39. Right off the face-off, Hughes had fallen as the puck had gotten to Jonathan Kovacevic, who kept it in at the blue line before finding Hughes alone in front of the net. Jack beat Joseph Woll glove side after he deked to the backhand.
William Nylander tied it up 1-1 at 13:46 of the second when he fired from the left face-off dot, shooting high to the blocker side after taking a pass from Max Domi. Before the goal, Chris Tanev got the puck out of the Maple Leafs’ zone, sending it into the neutral zone where the puck was passed around, Domi eventually got ahold of it and quickly passed it off to Nylander who had been just skating in. Not long after the Leafs’ tally, Nico Hischier put New Jersey back into the lead 2-1 at 11:46 with a power-play goal. The puck was sent up to the endboards on the right side where Jack Hughes was driving up to, fighting Conor Timmins for the puck and got it out for Jesper Bratt, who hit it against the wall to bounce out to Hischier. Nico collected the puck along the left side boards and used Timmins as a screen as he shot low glove after skating to the left face-off dot.
Auston Matthews picked up his 16th goal of the season to tie it up 2-2 in the third at 12:17 with a goal on the power play. After some passing back and forth between William Nylander and Mitch Marner, Matthews stuffed in the rebound from Marner’s point shot past Jacob Markstrom. At 10:16, Nico Hischier struck again for his second of the game to put the Devils back in front at 3-2 on the power play when he shot from the top of the goal crease after taking a spinning pass from Timo Meier. Before the third New Jersey goal, Jack Hughes had the puck along the boards, sending it over to Dougie Hamilton, who had been just above the blue line and fired, the puck popping back out and Hughes got ahold of it again, passing it to Jesper Bratt… Hughes skated to the left and Bratt handed it back over, and Jack shot from the left circle, Meier ended up grabbing the puck before passing to Hischier. With 4:13 left to play in regulation, Matthews scored his second of the night to knot it up again 3-3 when he found the back of the net from below the left face-off dot, shooting over Markstrom’s right shoulder off a pass from Marner, who received the puck from Jake McCabe.
With 3:50 remaining in overtime, William Nylander had just come off the bench, taking a stretch pass from Mitch Marner from the offensive blueline. Nylander went on a breakaway, getting one past Jacob Markstrom for the 4-3 final.
Game Notes:
– Joseph Woll made a total of 21 saves for Toronto.
– The Maple Leafs had previously lost three in a row in regulation.
– Both Mitch Marner and Jake McCabe gathered a pair of assists. …McCabe returned from missing four games due to an upper-body injury. …With his assist on Auston Matthews’ second goal, Marner recorded his 700th NHL point. He became the sixth skater in franchise history to reach 700 as a Leaf and the fastest to reach the milestone (622 games). He passed Darryl Sittler, who reached the milestone in 666 games.
– With his assist on William Nylander’s first goal, Max Domi hit 300 assists in his NHL career.
– The Maple Leafs played without John Tavares, who sustained a lower-body injury during practice on Wednesday and will be out week to week.
– Jack Hughes had a three-point night, collecting a goal and two assists.
– The Devils are 2-4-3 in their past nine games.
– Toronto: 28-16-2, NJ: 26-15-6
– After being fired by the Maple Leafs on the ninth of May, Sheldon Keefe coached his first game in Toronto since then. Two weeks after being fired, on May 23rd, the Devils hired him. Through five seasons as the head coach for the Maple Leafs, Keefe was 212-97-40.
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