Toronto Maple Leafs Win 13th Home Game in a Row

Last night saw The Toronto Maple Leafs winning their 13th game in a row on home ice in their 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. For Nazem Kadri, he joked with the sons of Patrick Marleau that one day it might be them who is playing for the Leafs and sending passes across the ice.

Patrick Marleau sent a pass to Kadri who scored the winning goal for the Leafs last night. Last night’s win pushed the teams home ice wins to thirteen and extended their club record.

Last night’s winning goal by Kadri was his twenty-ninth of the season thanks to the backhand pass by Marleau which just missed the stick and skate of Red Wings defenceman Luke Witkowski while on a two-on-one rush to the net.

Speaking about the goal that ended the 3-3 game, Kadri said,

“Unbelievable, I knew when he took it to his backhand there was a chance it was coming across.”

The Leafs picked up their forty-fifth win against the Red Wings after a short road trip that saw the team visiting Nashville and Tampa Bay. It was accuracy in his pass that gave Kadri, who has five goals in the last seven games, the chance to score the winning goal.

Toronto Maple Leafs

For Kadri, he was in dismay over Marleau’s ability to see the vision of the play stating,

“Unexplainable. Obviously he had the great vision to put it on my stick. I just tried to find a lane for him to create that pass, but it was all him.”

He continued by saying that at Marleau age, he continues to improve,

“I don’t know how he does it. I couldn’t imagine when I’m almost 40 years old how I’m going to feel. He always seems to contribute, and he’s just got those great genetics.”

William Nylander, Connor Brown and Kasperi Kapanen also scored for the Leafs. Frederik Andersen has thirty-eight saves on the night.

Detroit’s Frans Nielsen, Tyler Bertuzzi and Dylan Larkin each scored for the Red Wings. Goaltender Jimmy Howard had twenty-five saves for Detroit, who in the last thirteen games have only won one game, losing eleven and registering one tie. It is expected Detroit will not make the playoffs this year. For hockey sports betting sites, the Red Wings are looking rather dismal and with another failed year of making the playoffs, the odds in favour of the team and not good.

Detroit got out front 3-2 in the 3rd period when after a contested goal for goalie interference was over-ruled. This saw the Leafs fight back with Nylander stealing the puck from Detroit’s Nick Jensen and sending the puck past Jimmy Howard to tie the game.

Detroit had a scoring chance with 3:36 to go in regulation play with a shot from Gustav Nyquist was deflected off the glove of Fredrik Andersen.

Said Andersen, who recorded his thirty-fifth win of the season,

“It was a fun game, a lot of different kinds of goals, but a fun game and obviously a good win for us. We stepped up a little bit in the third.”

Commenting on the night, Mike Babcock said,

“Detroit played really hard and made it hard on us,” Toronto head coach Mike Babcock said. “We told our team before they were going to make it hard on us.”

The Maple Leafs will next visit the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night and then be off to face the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night. Detroit is off to battle the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, then will face Pittsburgh on Tuesday.