The Toronto Maple Leafs continued to have the Red Wings number Wednesday night. In a game full of unanswered goals, Toronto handed goaltender Frederik Andersen a second consecutive shutout in their 4-0 win at Joe Louis Arena. While snapping the Red Wings six game points streak, the carried on with their 12th on the road gaining two points to regain a spot with the divisional leaders.
Detroit returned home to face Toronto for the first time since losing the Centennial Classic Jan. 1. Since that day, the Maple Leafs have been in contention in the playoff race while the Red Wings started to get things into gear. While it has been slow for the Red Wings, they have been consistent in gaining points despite losing to the Bruins in overtime Tuesday. Gaining back home advantage could help them out against the Leafs who are on an 11 game points streak on the road. With the New Year’s Day defeat still fresh, Detroit would do anything to steal two points away from them by any means.
Things didn’t go well for Detroit through five minutes who saw Toronto take an early lead. Auston Matthews came in on a loose puck firing a beautiful backhander high on the slot to notch his 23rd of the season. It was just the third shot that Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek had to deal with plenty more action coming his way. The Czech made the appropriate saves against Toronto giving Detroit chances to run offensively with possession.
They only got two shots through 12 minutes as Toronto made turnovers all over the ice to take their runs at the Red Wings net. It came to a halt with eight minutes as Detroit was awarded the game’s first man advantage. Nothing came of it as the Maple Leafs penalty kill had great man coverage on Detroit leaving no room to drive pucks at the Toronto netminder who had a shutout against Calgary the other night.
Before the five-minute mark, Andersen made three stops on Detroit while his team produced a fourth shot on goal unable to increase their goal differential in the period. The Red Wings tried with all their efforts to level the game with Anthony Mantha going for a shot. His attempt pinged off the post coming so close to getting one on the board. Their efforts were in the shape of six shots in the first twenty minutes with Toronto recording seven.
They began the second period with the remainder of a power play but got into trouble by the Red Wings. Andreas Athanasiou and Frans Nielsen went on a shorthanded play but a drive from Nazem Kadri stopped them from completing the pass and a one timer shot. The great show of defense saw them get back the puck and increase their time with the puck in play while holding back Detroit’s chances.
Toronto continued to push hard to get another goal on net in the late stages of the period wanting a bigger grip on the lead while the opportunities were there. Their tenth shot was an amazing moment for them and a really bad one for Detroit. Roman Polak took a shot from the side where his scoring chance went off the skate of Jonathan Ericsson who once again became the victim of an unfortunate redirect that gave the 30-year-old defenseman his third of the season.
While everything went well for Toronto, the Red Wings were struggling on every side of their game unable to play alongside the Maple Leafs who carried a huge amount of leverage going into the third period outshooting Detroit 12-8.
It only got better for Toronto four minutes deep into the third where the Maple Leafs were hot on the mark and with their rushes into the Red Wings zone. James van Riemsdyk added his name to the scoring list with another shot that got the best of Mrazek. The puck bounced off the shoulder of the Czech netminder before flying into the net handing van Riemsdyk his ninth on the year.
Toronto clearly had the edge to win the game and made it count four minutes after their third unanswered with Nikita Soshnikov getting on the scoring binge. His power into the Detroit end saw the right winger line up a shot near the boards rifling one by Mrazek for his second. Andersen gained the assist on the play that had the 23-year-old almost by himself going forward.
They not only kept the score ahead of the Red Wings but shots to the net as well leaving them very little opportunities to score. By the time the horn sounded ending Detroit’s misery, Toronto had pulled off their second consecutive shutout and picked up two points to climb back into the third spot of their division.
Detroit progress being snapped left them with an empty space for the next five days as play for them would resume at the start of next week. With the time off, they would surely need to figure out ways to regain their momentum and bring back their difficult climb to being a competitive team.
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