The Leafs were coming into this one following a 6-5 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night. While the Kraken are coming off a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night as well. The Leafs came flying out of the gate, applying pressure on the Kraken. In the first three minutes of the game, shots were four to nothing in favor of the blue and white. Jaden Schwartz was trying to spread out the Leafs in the neutral zone as he was waiting at the Leafs blue line, trying to stretch out the defense of the Leafs, who were doing a fantastic job clogging up the neutral zone. Adam Larsson stepped up in the neutral zone and put a massive hit on Dryden Hunt, who was playing in his fourth game with the blue and white. Through the first half of the opening frame, the Leafs had generated three odd man rushes already but credit to Martin Jones as he stood his ground and kept it a scoreless game for his team. The Kraken didn’t register their first shot on goal till the 12 minute mark of the period, in large part due to the aggressiveness of the Leafs. A stretch of play went over seven straight minutes without a single whistle. William Nylander picked off a puck in the defensive zone and was off to the races as he used his incredible acceleration to create a scoring opportunity. Once again, Martin Jones shut the door and made the save on Nylander. The Leafs were given the first power play of the game with 1:36 remaining in the first period as Justin Schultz was called for tripping Pontus Holmberg. The blue and white elected to let their five forward power play group play the remainder of the period, but they could not generate much of anything with the man advantage. They would have 24 seconds of power play time that would carry over to the second period. Shots on goal in the opening frame were 9-3 in favor of the Leafs.
The Kraken generated the first scoring chance of the second period just 15 seconds in, but Matt Murray came up with a fantastic save on Wennberg. The Leafs went the other way and got a scoring chance of their own, but Martin Jones made another great save. Not long after the Kraken killed off their first penalty of the game, Jordan Eberle was called for holding on Calle Järnkrok. The Leafs once again decided to go with their five forward group to start their second power play. With 45 seconds remaining in the man advantage, Keefe pulled the top unit off as they couldn’t get anything going offensively. The power play would conclude with just a single shot on goal for the blue and white. 5:30 into the period, Morgan Rielly was called for cross-checking Yanni Gourde, giving the Kraken their first power play of the night. Sheldon Keefe was far from impressed with the call, and he thought Gourde went down fairly easily on the play. The Leafs penalty kill did a fantastic job through the first minute of the penalty kill, as they never really let the Kraken gain the zone to get set up whatsoever. The Kraken eventually gained zone entry in the second half of the power play, and Eeli Tolvanen let a one timer fly that found its way past Matt Murray for his second goal with the Kraken and his fourth of the year. This was only Tolvanen’s third game with the Kraken, as he was recently claimed off of waivers from the Nashville Predators. Rasmus Sandin took a stick in the eye from Yanni Gourde, which originally went uncalled, but Sandin was in some serious discomfort. After a huddle between the officials, they deemed it a double minor against Gourde, but they chose to review it to make sure. The eventual call was indeed a double minor against Gourde for high sticking. Even though the five forward group hadn’t done much in their first couple of opportunities, Keefe once again elected to go with them to start the four minute power play. They would eventually get set up in the offensive zone, and Nylander let a one timer fly, but Jones continued to shut the door and didn’t give up a rebound on the play. With a minute remaining in the double minor, John Tavares tipped home his 16th goal of the year off of a point shot from Mitch Marner. Fourteen seconds after the Leafs tied the game, the puck was in the back of their net again as Vince Dunn let a floater of a shot go from the point that beat Murray for his fifth goal of the year. That cannot go in; you need a save from your goaltender on that one. Jaden Schwartz made a fantastic outlet pass to find a streaking Jared McCann, who used his speed to get in all alone. He ripped it top corner glove side on Murray for his 18th goal of the year to give the Kraken a 3-1 lead at 13:50. Nylander and Matthews worked a give-and-go, which ended with a snapshot from Matthews that Jones flashed the leather on. The Kraken went right back on the attack as rookie Matty Beniers spun and ripped his 13th goal of the year past Murray. Once again, that’s another one that Murray has to give his team a save on. The final seconds would tick away in the middle frame, and the Kraken would carry their 4-1 lead into the third period. Shots on goal in the second period were 12-12.
The troubles for the blue and white continued as soon as the third period started, as Giordano was called for holding just 26 seconds into the frame. Full credit to the Leafs penalty killers as they did a fantastic job killing off the man advantage. Matthews spun and made a great pass to find Bunting alone in the slot, but he missed the net. Bunting was in disbelief for a second that he didn’t capitalize on the opportunity. The Kraken went the other way, and Wennberg finished off an odd-man rush for his eighth goal of the year to make it 5-1 just 2:57 into the period. That goal took the wind out of the sales of the Leafs, and it really took the crowd out of the game. As a result of that goal, Keefe finally decided it was time to juggle the lines around a little bit. One line shuffle that stood out to me was Pontus Holmberg, who was given a few shifts with Tavares and Marner. A very unfortunate incident as Carson Soucy took a puck up in the mouth as Bunting was trying to dip a Giordano deflection into the Kraken zone. Still, it deflected directly into the mouth of Soucy. There was a decent amount of blood, and he would stay down for a while but would eventually leave the game under his own power. With 5:18 remaining in regulation, Kerfoot took a stick up high from Jamie Oleksiak, giving the Leafs their fourth man advantage of the game. I was shocked to see Keefe not change things up on this particular power play, given how unproductive the top unit had been all night. However, he chose to go with his five forward group once again, and they came up empty-handed, making the power play one for five on the night. Shots on goal in the third period were 11-6 in favor of the Kraken and 27-26 overall in favor of the Leafs. TOI leader in this one for the Leafs was Mitch Marner with 21:14. All in all, it was an incredibly frustrating night for such a talented blue and white squad as they weren’t able to get much of anything going offensively.
Tonight’s Three Stars
1. Vince Dunn – 1 Goal 2 Assists
2. Jared McCann – 1 Goal 1 Assist
3. John Tavares – 1 Goal
The Leafs are back in action on Saturday night as they host the Detroit Red Wings for an original six matchup on hockey night in Canada!
For more Leafs news and in-game tweets, follow me on Twitter @mikethefanatic! Also, be sure to check out The Leafs Late Night Podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts!
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