The Toronto Maple Leafs were back in action on the second half of a back-to-back against the Nashville Predators.
This game marked the Maple Leafs debut for Cayden Primeau, who was claimed off waivers by the club just before the season started. It was also the first game of the season for Nashville’s Justus Annunen. So, in a battle of the backups, who would come out on top?
Well, without further ado, let’s get into the game recap.
Game Recap:
1st Period:
The first period had a ton of pace and very few stoppages. For it being the second half of a back-to-back for both clubs, both teams were flying. The Maple Leafs had a bit of an edge over the Predators, especially in the shot total. Toronto also got a boost from their defensemen, with Jake McCabe and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scoring to give the team an early 2-0 lead.
At the five-minute mark, Nicolas Roy took a hooking penalty, sending Nashville to their first power play of the game. Unfortunately, much like yesterday against the Ottawa Senators, the Predators’ power play couldn’t manage much and remained down 2-0. The Maple Leafs kept the pressure up in the final two minutes, which nearly led to McCabe scoring his second of the night, but Annunen stood tall. The period ended with Toronto up 2-0.
2nd Period:
The second period started with the same pace that the first ended with. The only real difference was that the Predators came out with more urgency. Bobby McMann had a breakaway that he rang off the post, and just a few minutes later, Nashville scored on a strange bounce that found its way into the net. In an unbelievable turn of events, just 44 seconds later they scored again to tie the game at 2-2, less than five minutes into the period.
Related: 3 Takeaways From the Maple Leafs’ 3-2 Loss to the Red Wings
After the Predators tied it, the Maple Leafs called a timeout to settle things down. It seemed to work. They stopped running around and looked more organized in their defensive zone. That led to William Nylander and John Tavares connecting on a pretty passing play to regain the lead at 3-2. The rest of the period had plenty of back-and-forth action, and the intensity slowed down a bit until McMann broke up the side wall and had his first shot blocked. The puck came right back to him, and he caught Annunen out of position to make it 4-2. The final few minutes were more physical, but nothing else changed and Toronto took a 4-2 lead into intermission.
3rd Period:
The third period started with Toronto carrying all the momentum. They got an early scoring chance that was turned aside by Annunen to keep it a two-goal game. The pace slowed a bit until Ozzy Wiesblatt hit Easton Cowan into the post without the puck, which drew a crowd and sent Toronto to their first power play.
On the ensuing power play, the first unit had some good looks, but the best one came from a great pass by Mattias Maccelli to Nicholas Robertson in the slot. Robertson’s shot hit the post. In the second half of the third, the Predators tried to close the gap, but the Maple Leafs did a good job keeping shots to the outside, blocking lanes, and clearing the zone. Eventually, Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies broke out on a two-on-one and pulled off a beautiful tic-tac-toe play that set Matthews up with an empty net at the right post. That goal gave Cowan his first NHL point, picking up the secondary assist.
After that goal, Toronto played looser and looked a lot more like the team fans are used to seeing. But it didn’t last long. After a missed call on Matthews, Roman Josi fired a puck from the point that found its way through to make it 5-3. The Predators pulled their goalie with just over three minutes left to try and mount a comeback, but seconds later, Matthews buried his second of the night to extend the lead to 6-3. Nashville added one late to cut it to 6-4, but after pulling their goalie again with a minute left, Knies found Nylander to seal the deal and secure Toronto’s second win of the season by a score of 7-4.
