Hutchinson boosts Maple Leafs past Red Wings, gets first win of season
Makes 29 saves; Matthews, Hyman each has three points for Toronto
via NHL.com
Michael Hutchinson made 29 saves for his first victory of the season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.
Hutchinson made 10 saves in the first period, when he stopped Dylan Larkin on two breakaways, one of them 35 seconds into the game.
“It was big,” Hutchinson said. “There’s always important saves in a game, and that happened to be one early on. I tried not to overthink things and just relax and let the game come to me. I feel like I’m in a good headspace right now, so I came in relaxed. I was happy I was able to keep Larkin from scoring on that.”
Hutchinson is 1-5-1 in seven starts. Frederik Andersen started Toronto’s previous nine games after Hutchinson allowed five goals in a 6-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 29. The win was the Maple Leafs’ first of the season by a goalie other than Andersen.
“It felt great to get that win for Hutch,” Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews said. “He made some unbelievable saves, especially early in the game. They got behind us with a couple breakaways, and then in the second period we were not taking care of the puck in the neutral zone, and he made some big saves. We’re extremely happy for him, and you could hear the crowd chanting (“Let’s go Hutch”). It was just an awesome moment.”
Matthews and Zach Hyman each had two goals and an assist for the Maple Leafs (19-14-4), who have won four in a row and are 6-1-0 in their past seven.
“Hutchinson was awesome, definitely first star of the game,” Hyman said. “It was huge for us and him, it’s a huge confidence boost. He hasn’t had the best luck of late, I don’t think he’s been playing poorly but we haven’t given him a chance and early on tonight we hung him out there and he was able to bail us out.”
Downed Detroit.
Check out tonight's @OntarioLottery Game Winning Numbers. #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/FfZEd6j6xM
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 22, 2019
Home for the Hockeydays 🎅 #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/95KyXWirSG
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 22, 2019
The @MapleLeafs extended their point streak against the Red Wings to nine games (7-0-2) dating to Feb. 18, 2018 (DET: 2-6-1). It marks the franchise’s longest active point streak against one opponent. #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/Pb0CWJmnuf
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 22, 2019
First ⭐️ Hutch!#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/yVHsEarwhO
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 22, 2019
Clutch Hutch#LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/cA5G045LH0
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 22, 2019