Canadiens end Maple Leafs winning streak at four
Matthews gets point in his 12th straight for Toronto
Brendan Gallagher broke a tie late in the third period, and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.
Gallagher knocked down Jeff Petry’s shot from the right point and put the puck past a sprawling Frederik Andersen with 3:07 remaining for Montreal’s second goal of the period.
“We were like [two different teams this game],” Gallagher said. “Our coaching staff did a really good job of remaining calm and letting us find our game, but the biggest guy in this one was (goalie) Carey Price. He gives you a chance to win every single game, and you can circle this one. We don’t have a shot in the third period if we don’t have him to settle us down.”
Tyler Toffoli had a goal and an assist, and Price made 21 saves for the Canadiens (9-4-2), who had lost two in a row. Gallagher also had an assist.
“We chopped up that puck pretty good and were fighting it in the first period,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. “We were on our heels, and when you lose three out of four and [are] playing one of the better teams in the League — they’re as hot as can be — we were a little tentative. We made a couple adjustments after the first, and in the second we slowly started picking up the pace of our game.”
Mitchell Marner scored, and Andersen made 23 saves for the Maple Leafs (11-3-1), who had won four in a row and are 8-1-1 in their past 10.
“We didn’t make good on the chances that we earned in the first period,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We had more than enough offense there in the first to blow the game wide open and didn’t capitalize or [it] didn’t go our way. Our game was a mess from there.”
Auston Matthews collected an assist to extend his official point streak to nine games (9-3—12) – the longest active run in the NHL.@AM34 is the first @MapleLeafs player in 27 years to collect a point in 12 or more consecutive appearances. #NHLStats #HockeyDay pic.twitter.com/gIFJBzxdUQ
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 14, 2021