The tally essentially iced the win for Boston, which secured its second consecutive victory with a 4-1 final, creating a three-point cushion over Tampa Bay and four-point leads over the New York Islanders and Carolina for the final playoff spot.
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As Frederik Andersens save total reached the 20s, Connor Carrick belted Andreas Athanasiou and shook him up, then sent Marner off on a breakaway that he buried up top before adding to Howards bruised ego by skidding into him.
ABOUT THE PREDATORS (39-26-11): Viktor Arvidsson scored in the initial encounter with Toronto and accumulated eight goals and 11 points in the first 12 games of March before being held in check on Tuesday.
As for the Leafs, all they have to do is win. Aside from Filip Forsberg’s 30th goal at 9:37, when they ceded far too much room to a lethal sniper, the Leafs mostly kept the Predators out of the top scoring areas. Nashville C Mike Fisher (lower-body injury) returned to the lineup after a four-game absence, but D Yannick Weber (upper-body injury) missed his third straight game.
Down the hall, Babcock’s successor Jeff Blashill, said he’ll bet his old boss a round of beer at the June draft in Chicago on the outcome. Throw out the last Buffalo blowout and Toronto has out-scored the opposition 13-3 through Nashville.
NY has six games remaining, while the Flyers have five.
“We got the result that we wanted”, centre Mitchell Marner said.
Toronto jumped back over Boston, which had reduced the Leafs to wild-card status earlier in the day and moved ahead of Ottawa for second in the Atlantic Division with the edge in ROW.
The best is undoubtedly the Game 7 overtime victor by Nikolai Borchevsky in 1993, which catapulted the Leafs to the Western Conference Final. We all watch the standings and know what they are. “He’s a heart and soul guy, somebody that gives you everything he’s got”. Someone usually relays those scores a few minutes after the Leafs are done. If you cruise along at.500, you wouldn’t have a chance to make the playoffs. There were lots of mistakes we made today that we can fix. When you think you’re a good team, that leads to you making good plays.
“I didn’t think he had anything”, Howard said.
Auston Matthews and the other Leafs rookies were glad to have launched their careers before this barn closed, the last NHL arena in the league with springy wooden boards. We had a little cry there. We needed the points. Former London Knight Mitch Marner gave Toronto the lead later in the period and William Nylander extended the lead not long after, though Nick Jensen pulled Detroit back within one before the second intermission, a 3-2 Leafs lead.
The fans who’ve come on the road, don’t likely care how it’s being done, only that they’re winning again. After two, you see what they’ve done.
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Tonight’s game is the fourth and final meeting between Detroit and Toronto this season. The Leafs record (excluding the pre-season games) is now 40-47-5-3, including a 6-5 playoff record, five ties and three regular season overtime/shootout losses. Matt Martin, for example, grew up in nearby Windsor, Ont. and attended games here as a kid.
