The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping for a much quicker ending when they play host to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
On Tuesday, Toronto registered a 2-1 shootout win over the Florida Panthers.
The shootout lasted six rounds, and it appeared that Evan Rodrigues had given Florida the win in the fifth. But upon a review initiated by the NHL Situation Room, it was deemed that Rodrigues’ shot went across the line because of a rebound, as the Panthers forward tapped the puck twice.
Noah Gregor, who had scored in regulation for Toronto, got the decisive goal in the shootout.
“No, [I’ve never seen that] but good call, I’m happy with the call,” said Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll, who made 38 saves. “I didn’t really know he double tapped it until I got back in the locker room and someone told me I might be going back out. It was huge by Gregor to get that goal to go ahead and a big win for us.”
Gregor tied the game in the second period when he streaked down the left side for his third goal of the season.
Toronto had a scare midway through the first period when Mitchell Marner took a Matthew Tkachuk shot to the face. Marner went directly to the dressing room, but he returned to start the second period, with a cage attached to his helmet to protect his face.
Toronto lost defenceman Mark Giordano (hand) in the first period on Tuesday. It is unknown how long he will be out, but Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said he will not be playing Thursday.
The Kraken will be out to end a two-game losing streak. Seattle opened a four-game road trip Tuesday, falling 4-3 to the Chicago Blackhawks. The loss was especially frustrating for the Kraken considering they went 0-for-5 on the power play, leaving coach Dave Hakstol with an immediate area to address.
“At the end of the day, as a power-play unit, what you want to be able to do is capitalize at key times of the hockey game,” Hakstol said. “You’re not always going to be at your best. You have to find a way to capitalize at a key time of the hockey game.
“We had a couple of those opportunities [Tuesday]. We came up short. We weren’t able to capitalize on it, the five-on-three being one, but there’s a couple of other spots that I would pinpoint, as well, as critical opportunities for us.”
Matty Beniers, who had a goal and an assist against Chicago, is also hoping that Seattle can be more efficient when it comes to breaking down the opponents’ penalty kill.
“We weren’t that good on the power play [Tuesday],” Beniers said. “So, that’s something we’ve got to clean up. I think we’ve been pretty good lately, but we can’t be everything every night, I guess.”
The Kraken did show fight in the loss to the Blackhawks when they erased a 2-0 deficit before later pulling within one on Tye Kartye’s third-period goal. However, the comeback bid came up short.
“We made a good push at the end there,” Beniers said. “I didn’t think we had our best [Tuesday], but we battled hard and just didn’t get what we wanted. We were being a little careless with the puck, a little bit slow.”