Toronto Maple Leafs Head into Carolina to Take on Hurricanes
The Toronto Maple Leafs will play game four of their five game road trip Saturday night and for the third time this season will take on the Carolina Hurricanes.
It was just over a week ago that the two teams clashed at Scotiabank Arena where the Toronto Maple Leafs won in convincing matter 5-2 that was surprisingly led by a two-goal output by Zach Aston-Reese.
Toronto has won both contests with the Hurriances this year as they also beat Carolina back in November 3-1 thanks to a 29 save performance by Erik Kallgren in net.
The Leafs have now won their last four contests against the Canes with their last loss coming back in October 2021.
Toronto Maple Leafs Head into Carolina to Take on Hurricanes
The Hurricanes are coming off a 2-1 defeat on Thursday night in a game against the New York Rangers that saw them score the first goal of the game late in the first period but could not build on the momentum.
Carolina was able to clinch a playoff position thanks to the Leafs victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, but are still in a dog fight for the first-place spot in the Metropolitan Division.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were able to bounce back from a horrendous game on Tuesday night with a convincing 6-2 victory over the Panthers on Thursday.
The Panthers loss keeps them outside of the playoffs for now and also gave the Leafs a five-point lead on the Tampa Bay Lightning with two games in hand for home-ice in their upcoming first round meeting.
Auston Matthews led the way with a pair of goals which gives him 34 on the season; a mark he has reached in each of his seven NHL seasons and puts him just three goals shy of George Armstrong and Frank Mahovlich for sixth place in franchise history.
Marner will look to extend his point streak to nine games after collecting a pair of points in Florida to push the streak to eight games. In that span, Marner has six goals and 15 points; and is now five points shy of reaching a new career best.
Saturday night’s game will mark the ninth game that Ryan O’Reilly has missed and with the team playing a back-to-back on Sunday, his ten games on the Long-term injured reserve will be served and his 24 days will be up on Tuesday making him eligible to return on Wednesday. The former Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup winner has been on the ice working on drills for more than a week, but there has been no update on how his finger is doing.
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Game time is 7PM Eastern and can be seen on CBC and Sportsnet (West and Ontario)/