The Toronto Maple Leafs played a great game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Through one period of play, the Toronto Maple Leafs were being dominated and headed into the intermission down two goals to none.
However, they turned up the heat in the second period and continued to apply pressure all through the third, surmounting the comeback.
Continous pressure, by the way.
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A late third-period goal sent them into overtime with at least one point in their back pocket, but that wouldn’t satisfy Auston Matthews.
During overtime, he came streaking down the right side, pulled off a little toe drag and sniped the game-winner to seal the deal.
What a game.
The Leafs deserved to be in that game more so than the Blackhawks who were being carried by their backup goaltender.
A little side note, the Leafs have now scored 19 goals through three games played into the 2017-18 regular season.
Anyways, it was a real team effort to get the win, so let’s take a look at the statistics.
Outlook
Mike Babcock slightly altered his lines before the game, bringing in Eric Fehr for Dominic Moore and Andreas Borgman for Connor Carrick who was out with an undisclosed illness.
The former of the two obviously centered Matt Martin and Connor Brown on the fourth line and Borgman slid in on the bottom left side, moving Calle Rosen over to the right.
Both players had a positive impact on the game.
| Team | SOG | TFO% | PP | PIM | HITS | BLKS | GVA |
| Hawks | 21 | 39% | 1/6 | 12 | 15 | 15 | 7 |
| Leafs | 43 | 61% | 1/6 | 14 | 25 | 12 | 17 |
I’m telling you, the Blackhawks backup goalie, Anton Forsberg, had one heck of a strong game and without his play, there might have been a few more goals for the good guys.
Just look at the shots, the Leafs more than doubled the Blackhawks, so that’s pretty good.
They controlled the faceoff dot, most likely because Jonathan Toews kept getting kicked out due to the stricter faceoff enforcement rule, but still, over 60% is pretty good.
Unfortunately, the Leafs power play was only able to strike once on six tries, but the other half of their special teams, the penalty kill, was quite effective.
Last, but not least, they gave the puck up too much, but overall, it was a better defensive game and a much closer score.
Individual Stats
I’ll never get tired praising the fourth line because they played a great game together and often are overlooked.
All three contributed in large ways and wasn’t it cool seeing Martin protect the opposing player from crashing into the end wall after trying to negate the icing?
That’s good competition.
Anyways, the team had a good night and some individuals shined more than others although a guy like Zach Hyman didn’t make it into the box score, he still had a strong game.
- Connor Brown: one goal, one assist
- Nikita Zaitsev: one goal, one assist
- Auston Matthews: one goal
- James van Riemsdyk: one goal
- Tyler Bozak: one assist
- Ron Hainsey: one assist
- Morgan Rielly: one assist
- Calle Rosen: one assist
It’s worth noting that Zaitsev has been playing really, really well lately, putting up two goals and four points through three games played and having a +/- of six.
Also, Bozak was able to tally his 200th career assist and Rosen earned his first NHL point, only Fehr is left to record a point (excluding Frederik Andersen, Curtis McElhinney, and Josh Leivo).
Between the pipes, Andersen was able to stop 18 of 21 shots on net while posting a Sv% of .857.
He played well, making some big saves here and there.