The Toronto Maple Leafs claim 5 of 8 possible points this week, and now sit second in the Atlantic Division with 7 points separating them from the first-place Boston Bruins. The Highlight of the week though was Friday’s Hall of Fame game where they honoured the great Börje Salming in an emotional ceremony alongside fellow Leaf greats Mats Sundin and Darryl Sittler. Here are the individual game results:
11/6
TOR 3 CAR 1
Carolina held an early 1-0 lead after a first-period goal from Stefan Noesen (2) but that would be all Carolina could manage. Toronto would tie the game in the 2nd on Calle Jarnkrok’s 3rd goal of the season and would seal the 3-1 win on 3rd-period goals from John Tavares (8) and William Nylander (5).
11/8
VGK 4 TOR 3 F/OT
This was looking to be a very back-and-forth game in the first 2 periods as Nicolas Roy (4) and Jack Eichel (6) would score for Vegas alongside Timothy Liljegren (1) for the Leafs in the first period, and Mitch Marner (3) and Liljegren (2) again would score in the 2nd to give the Leafs a 3-2 lead heading into the 3rd. Reilly Smith would then take things into his own hands scoring the tying goal in the 3rd (his 6th of the season), as well as the winning goal in overtime (his 7th of the season) to hand Toronto their 3rd OT loss of the season.
11/11
PIT 4 TOR 2
This was a disappointing end to such an emotional day as the Penguin’s offence was too much for Erik Kallgren in Toronto’s Hall of fame game. Toronto’s only goals came from Zach Aston-Reese (2) and William Nylander (6). Pittsburgh was propelled by goals from Malkin (450th of his career), Zucker (4), McGinn (3) and Guentzel (8).
11/12
VAN 2 TOR 3
Toronto bounced back and got back into the win column in this one against the lowly Canucks. All of the Offence occurred in the first 2 periods with goals from Bo Horvat (13) and J.T. Miller (8) scoring in the 1st for Vancouver, and Auston Matthews (7), Pierre Engvall (2), and Jordie Benn (1) all scoring in the 2nd for Toronto.
The Leafs will now have today and tomorrow off before beginning another week of action this Tuesday with a rematch against the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The game is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET.
– Austin Sturge