Toronto Maple Leafs: Bozak Scores Game Winner Against Sharks

After a tough loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Toronto Maple Leafs rebounded and beat the San Jose Sharks in the shootout.

Last night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs was the first loss for the San Jose Sharks against the Maple Leafs since 2011.

Without Nazem Kadri’s resurgence and strong play in net from Frederik Andersen, the Toronto Maple Leafs would have crashed and burned against the Sharks. Finally, Kadri was able to end his point drought as he scored his 14th goal in the second period on Sharks’ net-minder, Martin Jones.

In net, Andersen was a beast and he didn’t let his 2,000 USD fine distract him. He stopped 33 out of 35 shots.

Let’s take a look at what happened in the game.

First Period Begins With A Rumble

Last night’s game started off with a rumble as Joe Thornton and Nazem Kadri faced off in beard grabbing fight. The fight took place two seconds after the puck dropped. Towards the tale end of the fight, it appears that Kadri with his Gillette Fusion ProGlide hands ripped off a piece of Thornton’s beard.

It appeared that the Kadri-Thornton scrap gave the Toronto Maple Leafs the momentum as the Leafs’ offense became rather lethal. At the 12:21 mark, Mitch Marner skated around Sharks’ defenseman, Brenden Dillon and took two shots against Jones. Marner’s first shot hit Jones’ pad and when the puck broke away from Jones, Marner ended up shooting the puck back at Jones while falling to his face. It truly was a great effort by Marner.

Towards the end of the first period, William Nylander brought the puck into the offensive zone. Nylander raced with the puck towards the Molson Canadian sign and pulled a NFL-style button hook. At that point, he passed the puck towards the blue-line. Connor Carrick was sitting at the blue-line and shot a one-timer from the point. The puck ended up deflecting off of Auston Matthews and past Martin Jones for a 1-0 lead.

Roughly 30 seconds after Matthews’ goal, Dillon was able to secure the puck from a rebound after Brent Burns ripped a shot on Andersen. Dillon then ripped a shot past Andersen and his goal went in Andersen’s top shelf. The game was tied 1-1.

Leafs Grab Goal On Second Period Power-Play

At around the 14:49 mark of the second period, Jake Gardiner was sent to the penalty box with a tripping minor. Gardiner’s penalty sparked a riveting Sharks’ power-play. The Sharks had plenty of  scoring chances on the power-play as Thornton and Logan Couture had one-timer shots that went wide of Andersen.

Later on in the second period at the 8:42 mark, Sharks’ defenseman, Brent Burns received a four minute double minor penalty after high-sticking Marner. On the Leafs’ power-play, James van Riemdsyk had a solid redirection in front of Jones, but unfortunately the puck didn’t bounce in the net. The Leafs didn’t give up though. A few seconds later, Marner ripped a pass outside of the face-off circle. Kadri then redirected Marner’s pass and the puck found its way behind Jones for a Leaf goal. Kadri was able to grab his 14th goal of the season and ended his point drought.

Unfortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Sharks tied the game six minutes later. Andersen had possession of the puck and was looking to pass the puck to Carrick. Instead of Andersen completing a successful pass, Sharks’ forward, Chris Tierney robbed Andersen and put the puck past him to tie the game at 2.

Auston Takes Shot To The Shoulder

Unlike the first and second periods, the third period was extremely quiet for both squads. There were plenty of misfired shots on both ends of the ice. But, there was a scary moment at the 15:00 mark. After a collision with Morgan Rielly, Matthews fell to the ice and immediately after was nailed in the shoulder by the puck.

Matthews was able to recover and played the rest of the game. Unfortunately for Toronto Maple Leafs fans, it was a scary moment as Matthews just came back in the lineup last week after experiencing concussion symptoms.

Bozak Nets Game Winner In Shootout

With the third period being relatively quiet from an offensive stand point, the game ended up going to overtime.

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In overtime, Leo Komarov had a great chance at the 4:35 mark, but was denied by Jones.

Roughly a minute later, Mike Babcock decided to change his lines. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong time to make a change. The Sharks had just acquired the puck in the neutral zone and the line change gave the Sharks an odd-man rush. Fortunately for Toronto Maple Leafs fans, the Sharks weren’t able to prevail on the odd-man rush.

A few minutes later, Marner got caught with a high sticking call. Marner’s high sticking call gave the Sharks a 4 v 3 advantage in the dying minutes of overtime. The Leafs were able to shutdown the Sharks’ power-play and Roman Polak had a great clear with 30 seconds to spare in overtime.

Neither the Sharks nor the Leafs could capitalize in overtime, but the Leafs found pay dirt in the shootout. In the sixth round of the shootout, Tyler Bozak had a game winning wrist shot that went top-shelf on Jones to secure the victory for the Leafs.

Three Stars

This will look pretty similar to Sportsnet’s three stars. But, I had my reasons.

If I had to choose three stars for last night’s game, I’d give the first star to Andersen. After a 2-0 loss against Tampa, Andersen came ready to rebound and had a tremendous night against the Sharks. He had a .943 save percentage and shutdown the Sharks’ advances on the Leafs penalty kill.

My second star would go to Bozak. He’s been inconsistent throughout the season, but as of late he’s looked rather sold. He had strong games in late December against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Arizona Coyotes. Perhaps he’s finally getting out of his slump. Without Bozak’s game-winning shootout goal, who knows what could have happened. So, I’ll give the second star to Bozak.

The third star would go to Jones. This was a tough decision as Nylander and Matthews both had strong nights in the offensive zone. But like Andersen, Jones was tough as nails for the Sharks. He stopped 26 out of 28 for San Jose and has looked dominant all season. So far in his 2017-18 campaign, he has a GAA of 2.54 and a SV% of .914. Who knows, if he continues he could bring home the Vezina. Unfortunately for Jones, he has some tough competitors for the Vezina. Currently, Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning is standing in his way.

Next: Toronto Marlies Notebook: Riding the Rollercoaster

Thoughts On Upcoming Matchup Against Vancouver

All-in-all, it was a very solid offensive game for the Leafs. The Leafs seemed to get out their offensive funk that they have had in the last few games against the Lightning and the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Leafs will battle against the Vancouver Canucks at the Air Canada Centre tomorrow night. The Canucks were blanketed by the Anaheim Ducks the other night as they fell 5-0. The Canucks are also without several of their talented offensive weapons including Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi. Even though the Canucks have many injuries at the moment, the Leafs shouldn’t go into Saturday’s game thinking it’ll be an easy one. Calder trophy candidate, Brock Boeser will be hungry to grab some points after quiet games against the Los Angeles Kings and the Ducks.

It’ll be a tough game against Vancouver, but the Leafs should be able to snag another win.