Matthews, Campbell help Maple Leafs end Penguins streaks
Auston Matthews extended his point streak to nine games with a goal and an assist for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 4-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.
“Responsibility, he’s doing on the defensive side of the puck, and he sees shot lanes he’s been getting through, and at the same time with what he produces shotwise, he finds a lot of holes for passing,” Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner said. “So he’s done a great job all season long playing on that defensive side of the puck and he’s been getting rewarded recently for it, so that’s great to see.”
Jack Campbell made a season-high 45 saves for the Maple Leafs (32-12-3), who have won seven in a row at home and eight of 10 overall.
“He’s been outstanding for us all season, but I just thought today was maybe as calmed and poised as he’s looked all season,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I thought we defended pretty well, but at times when there is lots of stuff happening in tight, even the difficult saves I thought he made look easy tonight, and I thought that was really, really good. He made the coach feel very comfortable on the bench today.
“It’s unfortunate that we gave up the goal because we didn’t do a good job on that, it was a tap in at the side of the post, but he deserved a shutout today.”
Evgeni Malkin scored, and Tristan Jarry made 25 saves for the Penguins (31-12-8), who had won four in a row and six straight on the road.
“We have to be at our best and we weren’t tonight,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ve got an opportunity on Sunday (against the Carolina Hurricanes) to hit the reset button and go back to playing the hockey we know we are capable of.”
Matthews gave the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead 21 seconds into the first period on a breakaway after taking a pass from TJ Brodie. The goal was his 33rd of the season, one behind Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl for the NHL lead.
Matthews has scored 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists) during the streak. He left the game after hitting his jaw on the crossbar at 6:41 of the third period but returned.
Rielly made it 2-0 at 5:31 of the second period when he skated end to end and shot from the left face-off dot.
“I just saw some room, that’s all,” Rielly said. “On those power-play breakouts with two guys behind me, usually it’s a drop (pass) automatic, so when there is a chance to go, you want to be able to take advantage of it.”
It was the defenseman’s sixth goal of the season. He scored five last season and three the season before.
“I have no words for it,” Maple Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin said. “I saw him take off, and when he beat the first guy, I thought he was going to kick it out and then he just skated through there. I don’t know if it could have been any better. I was a little bit surprised because I haven’t seen one like that in a game, but that was one of the best goals I’ve ever seen live and I had a pretty good seat to see it.”
The Maple Leafs went up 3-0 at 18:36 when David Kampf took a pass from Rielly on a shorthanded 2-on-1. The goal was reviewed and it was ruled Jarry caused the net to be displaced from its moorings prior to the puck crossing the goal line.
Toronto was 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
“Special teams kind of really sticks out when you take that many penalties, so I thought our PK did a great job,” Rielly said.
Malkin made it 3-1 at 3:33 of the third period off a rebound at the top of the goal crease. He has scored a point in 12 of his 15 games this season (six goals, nine assists).
Michael Bunting made it 4-1 at 6:06 with a backhand off a pass from Matthews.
“You have to learn from it but obviously try to move by it,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “I think we know we can be better and we have to execute better, and for whatever reason we didn’t. It was consistently, whether it was special teams or 5-on-5, we just didn’t do a good enough job of executing. It’s hard to win games like that.”
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