TORONTO – John Tavares had a aim and two assists, Petr Mrazek made 26 saves for his first victory with Toronto, and the Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Pink Wings 5-4 on Saturday night time.
Jake Muzzin and Alexander Kerfoot, with a aim and an help every, Mitch Marner and Michael Bunting supplied the remainder of the offence for Toronto (4-4-1).
Joe Veleno and Filip Zadina, with a aim and an help apiece, Vladislav Namestnikov and Filip Hronek replied for Detroit (4-3-2).
Thomas Greiss stopped 33 pictures for the Pink Wings, who have been minus main scorer Tyler Bertuzzi as a result of he’s declined to be vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 and is unable to journey to Canada with out a 14-day quarantine.
Bunting snapped a 1-1 tie — and Toronto’s ugly 0-for-17 stretch with the person benefit over its final six video games — when he redirected Jason Spezza’s slap cross house for his third aim of the season with 17.1 seconds left in second interval on the Leafs’ first energy play of the night time.
Kerfoot then made it 3-1 simply 17 seconds into the third when he took a cross from Tavares and beat Greiss for his second.
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Detroit acquired again inside one 1:19 later when Veleno took a cross from Michael Rasmussen and beat Mrazek for his first after Travis Dermott turned the puck over behind Toronto’s internet.
After the Leafs killed off a penalty, Tavares scored his third off a Kerfoot cross on a 2-on-1 to make it 4-2 at 7:47.
However the Pink Wings responded at 10:11 when Namestnikov redirected his fourth after Veleno took the preliminary shot for the rookie’s first two-point recreation of his NHL profession in his sixth contest.
Marner then put it out of attain together with his first aim in 17 video games relationship again to final season after Greiss and Detroit defenceman Nick Leddy acquired their alerts crossed with 2:05 left on the clock.
Hronek made it 5-4 on his first with Greiss on the bench, however Toronto held on from there for its second straight win.
The Leafs have made a behavior of sluggish begins of their middling begin to the season — together with falling behind 2-0 to the winless Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday earlier than rallying for a 3-2 extra time victory — however have been shot out of a cannon early in opposition to Detroit.
Greiss, whose group was taking part in its third recreation in 4 nights after dropping 2-1 to the Florida Panthers on Friday at house, held the fort with a few good stops as Toronto constructed an 8-2 edge in pictures.
The Pink Wings seemed poised to get out of the primary interval unscathed, however Muzzin gave the Leafs a 1-0 lead with 13.4 seconds left when he took a cross from T.J. Brodie and fired house his first of the marketing campaign.
Mrazek, who made his first house begin for Toronto since pulling his groin in Ottawa on Oct. 14, stopped Dylan Larkin with a pleasant pad cease six minutes into the second interval.
Leafs winger Pierre Engvall then rang a shot off the publish on a Detroit energy play after intercepting a cross from rookie defenceman Moritz Seider and racing in on a break.
The Pink Wings went again the opposite manner, with Seider organising Zadina to tear his second previous Mrazek’s glove at 8:19.
Drafted within the fifth spherical by Detroit again in 2010 earlier than taking part in 166 video games for the group over six seasons, Mrazek stored issues even with a pleasant cease on Michael Rasmussen earlier than Bunting pushed Toronto forward late within the interval.
Notes: Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly signed an eight-year, US$60-million contract extension Friday that stretches by the 2029-30 season. … Toronto blue-liner Justin Holl — protected by the group within the Seattle growth draft — was a wholesome scratch. Timothy Liljegren took his spot within the lineup.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Oct. 30, 2021.
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