TORONTO — James van Riemsdyk broke out of a scoring slump, and the Toronto Maple Leafs snapped a five-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday.
Alexey Marchenko and Nazem Kadri also scored for the Maple Leafs (28-22-14), who were 0-2-3 in their previous five outings. Rookie Mitchell Marner and Tyler Bozak each had two assists.
Gustav Nyquist struck twice for the Red Wings (25-27-11), while Henrik Zetterberg extended his point streak to seven games with an assist on both goals.
Frederik Andersen made 22 saves. Petr Mrazek, making his eighth straight start for Detroit, stopped 25 shots.
A brutal turnover in Detroit’s end led to the opening goal from Marchenko, who was a Red Wing until Feb. 4 when Toronto claimed him off waivers.
Darren Helm attempted a cross-ice pass that was intercepted by Marner. Mrazek made a sprawling save on Bozak after he was set up by Marner, but Marchenko came in from the blue line to grab the rebound and put it into the wide-open net for his first of the year.
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill challenged for goalie interference but the call stood and Toronto had the lead just 1:07 into the game.
Van Riemsdyk doubled his team’s advantage five minutes later with his first goal in 15 games, putting home a cross-crease feed from Bozak on the power play for his 20th of the season.
Detroit earned an early power play in the second period, but couldn’t even get a shot on net and soon found itself down three goals.
Kadri made it 3-0 less than six minutes into the second with his 27th of the year. After taking a pass from William Nylander inside the face-off circle, Kadri put a wrister high blocker side on Mrazek.
Detroit went the first 16:13 of the second before registering a shot on Andersen, although the Wings did hit two posts in that span.
Nyquist finally put the Red Wings on the board, taking a pass from Zetterberg and sliding a backhand past Andersen with 38 seconds to go in the second.
Nyquist made it a one-goal game before the ice even had time to dry for the third period, scoring his second of the game and ninth of the season 36 seconds in.
The Wings had one last chance to tie the game with a faceoff in Toronto’s zone with 5.5 seconds to play and Mrazek out for the extra attacker, but couldn’t find the equalizer.
Notes: Toronto’s Martin Marincin, Josh Leivo, Ben Smith and Eric Fehr were healthy scratches, Connor Carrick (upper body) was also out. … Detroit scratches were Mitch Callahan (healthy), Ryan Sproul (left knee), Jonathan Ericsson (wrist) and Jimmy Howard (knee). … Defenceman Robbie Russo, 24, made his NHL debut with Detroit. He has spent the past two season with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League. … Leafs broadcaster Joe Bowen called his 3,000th career game.
0 comments: