Toronto Maple Leafs Shutdown the Nashville Predators 5-2

The Toronto Maple Leafs came on strong against the Nashville Predators last night in what was Auston Matthews return from the injured list. Matthews it seemed didn’t miss a beat and got right into the action contributing to goal scoring and leading the Leafs to a 5-2 victory.

Matthews scored his first goal since returning from an injured shoulder that put him on the sidelines for ten games. Matthews said he felt fine on the ice stating,

“I got engaged early, got the puck, able to make a couple of plays and that kind of builds your confidence for the rest of the game.”

The Predators were on a hot streak and had won fourteen of their last fifteen games with their last recorded loss being on the 17th of February.

Said Nashville coach, Peter Laviolette,

“”One team was fast, the other team wasn’t fast. To me, that’s where you get lopsided. The ice seems to tilt one way and we’ve done that, too. We were off the mark with regard to that tonight and we’ll look to fix it and be better.”

Toronto’s Mitchell Marner and James van Riemsdyk both scored goals and earned assists for the Leafs as did Jack Gardiner and William Nylander. Tyler Bozak got two assists, and Morgan Reilly recorded three. Toronto’s goaltender Frederik Andersen had 23 saves on the night as did the Predators Pekka Rinne. Scott Hartnell and Victor Arvisson each scored one for Nashville.

Toronto Maple Leafs

A first-period power play at the 4-minute mark saw Van Riemsdyk scoring after accepting a pass for Mitch Marner. Van Riemsdyk had attempted to pass the puck through his skates however instead the puck bounced off the stick of Roman Josi and snuck past Pekka Rinne.

Nashville Predator’s Aridsson was able to tie the game in the second period during a power play. However, Toronto responded with both Nylander and Matthews scoring in the second to give Toronto a 3-1 lead.

Commenting on Matthews return, Coach Babcock said,

“The first night, you always have energy, it’s now what’s going to come? The good thing about it is he has been able to skate. His linemates were really good tonight and that helped him as well.”

Mitch Marner got the scoring started nine seconds into the third while on a power play to give the Leafs a 4-2 lead.
Said Marner,

“Obviously, starting on the power play, it’s an advantage so we wanted to make sure right away we tried to make the most of it, lucky enough, we did.”

Just over three minutes later, a slap shot from Jack Gardiner gave Toronto its fifth goal and a 5-2 lead over the Predators. Scott Hartnell scored late in the third to give Nashville their second goal on the night.

As for Nashville defencemen Ryan Ellis, he felt the team was in for a letdown after the good luck they had been riding on saying,

“I think we deserved every second of that. Good team came in here and played a lot better than us. I think you look at this stretch we’ve had of (15) games with points, we’ve been squeaking out wins. We’ve been finding ways to win. But that’s not playoff hockey.”

NHL hockey sports betting sites will be watching the Leafs closely in what is turning out to be a decent season for the beleaguered team. Currently sitting in third in the Atlantic Division, they have the next two days off and will then head to Buffalo to face Sabres, Nashville is next due to play Minnesota on Saturday night.