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The story turned out to be a young goaltender after all.
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Not Dennis Hildeby, but there was still a feel-good angle, and much relief, for the Maple Leafs after Wednesday’s 2-1 overtime win in Anaheim.
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Lukas Dostal, the 23-year-old back-up for the downtrodden Ducks, made a career and franchise high 55 saves at the Honda Center before Auston Matthews scored his NHL high 30th goal, his first game winner of the season, on his 13th shot with seven more attempts.
“It was a little bit (shocking),” Matthews told the media in Anaheim of Dostal’s dominance. “You try and think ‘next one’s going in, next one’s going in’, but he played a hell of a game and you have to tip your hat to him.
“I’m proud of everyone not getting discouraged.”
The Leafs almost saw their three-year streak of not being shut out come to an ignominious end, salvaged by John Tavares’s power-play goal with 5:47 to go in regulation. That was their 50th shot on Dostal and their fifth power play, a Morgan Rielly drive off the post to Tavares’s stick.
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The Leafs won back-to-back on the California road trip and for the first time in nearly a month.
Martin Jones, the right choice to start after blanking Los Angeles, held his team in again with 27 saves and has stopped 58 of 59, counting the Kings, while 22-year-old rookie Hildeby watched a second game from the bench as Ilya Samsonov remains at home.
With the Leafs’ record below .500 against the bottom seven NHL clubs, few could argue with the call to trot out Jones again instead of letting Hildeby see live fire in The Show.
Jones is no stranger to a heavy workload or the nuances of Honda from his Pacific Division days in L.A. and San Jose, the latter where he likely plays the trip’s conclusion Saturday. These points are too vital with the standings much closer for Toronto than the past few seasons when they pulled away from the pack in the second half.
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“It’s hard for us to have that conversation on one end and go with the goalie who has never played in the league, when you’ve got another guy coming off a shutout,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I liked we stayed with it and were rewarded.
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“Auston was bound to get one. We’ve been playing a much better team game of late, but within that you need difference makers to step up.”
Matthews had no goals or points the previous three games after a hot December. Ditto luck for linemate Mitch Marner, held to just four points his past eight until a nice helper on Wednesday’s winner. William Nylander also assisted on the Tavares goal, improving his team-best points to 51.
“It’s the way it goes over 82 games, you see a hot goaltender,” Tavares said of the result. “(But) Auston is due every night with the amount of looks he gets. “That’s his 30th (the most in 35 games by a Leaf since Frank Mahovlich in 1960-61) an incredible start to the season.”
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If only playing back-to-back was Anaheim’s lone problem. Punished 7-2 at home by Edmonton on New Year’s Eve and second last in the Pacific, the Ducks have injuries (Troy Terry, Dylan Strome, Leo Carlsson) and a flu bug that felled among others, the Leafs playoff nemesis last spring, defenceman Radko Gudas.
Dostal, 1-7 in his past eight decisions, had to face one of the NHL’s top offences. Yet the Leafs couldn’t produce a first-period goal despite a 6-1 advantage in high-danger chances including the first of five power plays.
Dostal, in his 39th NHL game for the often-overwhelmed Ducks, stopped the first 33 through 40 minutes.
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The Ducks got further life from Bobby McMann’s major boarding call and game ejection in the second period. McMann delivered a hard shoulder-to-shoulder hit on an off-balance Pavel Mintyukov too close to the wall, which prompted ex-Leaf Ilya Lyubushkin to engage him.
The three-minute power play that ensued for Anaheim was weathered by Jones and ended prematurely when Alex Killorn took and extra poke at Jake McCabe in a scrum. But Frank Vatrano scored right after, shorthanded off of a botched Toronto breakout.
Keefe made one lineup change up front, sitting Nick Robertson despite him breaking a goal slump last week. Pontus Holmberg was inserted and wound up playing more than expected when McMann was tossed.
It was defenceman Simon Benoit’s first game back in Orange County since the Ducks didn’t re-sign him and Toronto turned him into a regular.
“A mistake on their part and a win for Toronto,” Benoit had earlier declared.
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2024-01-04 12:21:28Z
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