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Frederik Andersen, timely goal scoring and a perfect penalty kill led the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers in the first game of their Western road trip.

The Leafs‘ third-best offense is starting to get it going on the road with eight goals over their last two games after just 19 in their first nine away from home.

Toronto struck first for the 15th time in 22 games following the expiration of an abbreviated Leafs powerplay six minutes into the opening frame. William Nylander’s beautifully measured pass through the lip of the crease found Auston Matthews at the back post for the easiest of tap-ins – a goal that invoked memories of Matthews’ fourth versus Ottawa on his historic debut night, except Nylander had to fit his pass through two sticks from outside the circle as opposed to an outright 2v1.

The Leafs didn’t have an ideal first period overall, despite the 1-0 advantage – they were outshot 12-7 and gave up a whopping 34 shot attempts. They also had to kill two penalties, but the Oilers led 19-11 in even-strength shot attempts through 20 minutes. Frederik Andersen was the Leafs’ best player in the first (and throughout much of the game), preserving a 1-0 lead with a point-blank stop on Benoit Pouliot on the penalty kill and a late-period glove save on Leon Draisatl.

The Leafs padded their lead early in the second period through James van Riemsdyk, who was left all alone after both Oilers defencemen – Kris Russell and Oscar Klefbom – teamed up and pinned the same guy (Mitch Marner) to the boards for about six seconds behind the Edmonton net. Marner kicked the puck loose with his feet over to Bozak, who found JVR wide open in front of Cam Talbot. JVR had enough time to collect on his own rebound for his team-leading tenth (tied with Nazem Kadri and Auston Matthews) of the season. Marner recorded his 19th point on the play to remain the NHL rookie scoring co-leader with Patrik Laine (who scored versus New Jersey tonight).

The Oilers pulled back within one six minutes into the second period through Andrej Sekera after the Leafs spent a long shift spent scrambling in their own zone with the Kadri line and the Rielly – Zaitsev pairing on the ice, who were in effect down a man after Nikita Soshnikov broke his stick. After the goal, Mike Babcock walked down the bench and whispered something into Marner’s ear; Marner had previously iced the puck with a bit of a careless pass through the neutral zone, which – despite the Leafs winning the subsequent draw and scrambling for a change – put them back on their heels and initiated the sequence.

A timely goal from Nazem Kadri restored the two-goal advantage just 1:10 later. Kadri’s pressure on the forecheck forced the play into the middle, where Komarov read the pass and intercepted in front of the Oilers net. Komarov calmly pulled Cam Talbot off his post before sliding the puck over for Kadri to tap in his tenth of the season.

A penalty parade in the second half of the middle frame saw the Leafs start out on a powerplay and wind up down two men on a 5-on-3 kill inside a minute and a half. A couple of key shot blocks from Ben Smith and Roman Polak and three saves from Frederik Andersen preserved the 3-1 lead before Zach Hyman put a nail in the coffin shortly after the penalties expired. On the ice with Leo Komarov and Matt Martin coming out of the box, Hyman won a battle down low, threw the puck in front and collected on a loose puck, sneaking a one-timer through Talbot’s pads.

Connor McDavid finally broke through against the Leafs early in the third period with a gorgeous breakaway goal as the Leafs’ defence pair scrambled onto the ice following a change. Morgan Rielly was the one left chasing McDavid’s tail on the play, but the goal started and ended with Tyler Bozak, who needed to be stronger on the puck at the offensive blueline when he had the opportunity to get it deep as his team changed.

Despite the Oilers getting back within two, the Leafs managed to outshoot Edmonton 9-8 to close out the game in the third period, with their lives made easier thanks to a powerplay drawn by Zach Hyman with three minutes remaining.


Post Game Notes

– The Leafs were able to score once off the rush and on three occasions strike quickly after winning battles down low in the offensive zone, taking full advantage of some suspect Oilers defensive zone coverage. That meant the Leafs weren’t forced to spend a whole lot of time in the offensive zone trying to manufacture offense through lengthier cycles. They also had to kill six penalties and held the lead for 54 out of 60 minutes. That explains a good amount of the shot attempt differential, although they’ll need to generate more offensive zone time going forward to keep their winning ways alive on the road trip.

– Can’t play a much better game as a role player than Zach Hyman did in this one. He scored a goal, could’ve easily had three (five shots on goal total and many were good looks), drew two penalties, blocked three shots, and played nearly five minutes shorthanded on a perfect night for a busy Leafs penalty kill (six for six). Hyman is now up to four points in his last three games as the production is starting to catch up with the consistency of his performance level since the start of the season.

– This was a first-star performance from Frederik Andersen, who stopped 28 of 30 shots but was even better than those numbers suggest. His most important sequence of the game was on the 5 on 3 against; he made a great scramble save to prevent Matt Hunwick from scoring on his own net and stood tall to shut down Jordan Eberle on a shortside attempt destined for the top corner. That held the score at 3-1 before the Leafs scored the other way shortly after the kill ended — a major turning point in the game.

Andersen has now allowed two or less in six consecutive starts and sports an 8-5-0 record with a .932 save percentage over his last 13 dating back to the Tampa Bay game. He’s looking every bit like the big, calm, efficient goaltender the Leafs believed they were acquiring in the summer. Here is a great piece from over at InGoal Magazine outlining the change in Andersen’s depth since the beginning of the season that has him looking far more comfortable of late.

– Putting aside the fact that he played in between Ben Smith and Matt Martin for a second, it was nice to see Nylander receiving some reps at center. We saw one good example of how effective Nylander can be as a play-driving center; when he swings low, winds up, collects the puck and hits the neutral zone with speed, he is like a hot knife through butter:

– Despite the two goals against (not much they could do on either), this was the second game in a row that the Nikita Zaitsev and Morgan Rielly came out ahead on possession against elite opposition. Rielly was a 52% CF head to head versus McDavid in 9:40 at 5v5, while Zaitsev was a 50% CF in a game in which the Leafs were outpossessed overall.

– It also takes five players to quiet the top line of the other team. Maybe the perception is totally different without this play: A goal-saving backcheck from Nikita Soshnikov, who put his body on the line to take away Milan Lucic on what was a likely goal on a 2v1 otherwise. The game was still 2-1 at this point.

Soshnikov was a real-time stats machine with three shots on goal, four blocked shots and four hits in 13:44 of action.

– Leo Komarov is now up to eight points in his last eleven games after two in his first eleven.

– Another heavily populated scoresheet in this game for Nazem Kadri with a goal, six penalty minutes, a pair of shots on goal and a couple of hits, including a big collision with Adam Larsson that led to a charging and cross-checking double minor. Babcock mentioned the other day that Kadri likes having an assignment when he comes to the rink and has played better at home with last change than he has on the road, where’s had the occasional issue getting “dialled in.” No issue there tonight. The battle with McDavid at the ACC on the first of the month was clearly still fresh in the memory bank. Also positive from the Leaf perspective is that it wasn’t only Kadri putting in an effort to make it a harder game on McDavid – both Soshnikov and Zaitsev made sure to apply a cross check or a rub out when the opportunity presented itself.


All Situations Shot Attempts

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Shot Locations

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Game In Six


Mike Babcock Post Game