Toronto Maple Leafs' Mitch Marner skates towards the net while chased by Montreal Canadiens' Cole Caufield, during second period NHL action in Toronto on Nov. 9.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Following in the victorious footsteps of the Grey Cup-bound Toronto Argonauts, the city’s hockey club ensured it was a daily double at Montreal’s expense Saturday, easing past the Canadiens with a 4-1 victory.
While picking up two points in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 16th game of a young NHL season doesn’t carry the same import as the Argos dethroning the defending CFL champions earlier in the day, it did extend the Leafs’ recent regular-season dominance over their Original Six rivals. Saturday’s win was the team’s ninth consecutive home victory over the Habs in Toronto, tying the franchise record set between November 1950 and November 1951 – although the Canadiens did interrupt that streak in the most recent playoff series between the teams, back in 2021.
But beyond the tale of two cities, this contest was a game of two teams heading in different directions.
In the home dressing room at Scotiabank Arena after the contest, there was a confident squad that has now won three straight divisional games, giving up just two goals while scoring 11 in wins over Boston, Detroit and now Montreal.
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In the other, amid the packing of equipment bags, there was a team in the midst of a tailspin, losers of six straight and with a 4-9-2 record, putting it 10 points behind the Leafs in the Atlantic Division standing.
“I think they’re all fighting it a little bit,” Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis said of his players. “It’s hard to do it by yourself in this league. When they’re all fighting it a little bit, I think it’s hard for anybody. We’ll see what we can do to help them out.”
Much like Toronto’s earlier wins this week, this win was both achieved without injured captain Auston Matthews, and powered largely by the special teams.
After scoring just three power-play goals through the first 12 games of the season, the team has scored at least one in four straight games, and has seven in its three-game winning streak.
“Good win, good week for us, good chance to get away from it tomorrow, enjoy the day and get back to work for another big week ahead,” John Tavares said.
In another of what head coach Craig Berube likes to term “low event” periods, the Maple Leafs suffocated the visiting Canadiens in the opening stanza. Restricting them to just two shots over the first 20 minutes, the most important task for goaltender Joseph Woll – in just his fourth start of the season – was likely maintaining his focus.
Still, despite their defensive diligence, the Leafs rearguard still found time to chip in on the offensive front. Two in particular – Connor Timmins and Simon Benoit – linked up for the opening goal, with Timmins taking the puck from his blueline partner, spinning out of a check from Habs forward Josh Anderson and firing the puck off the back of Montreal centre Christian Dvorak and past goaltender Samuel Montembeault.
The two shots the Leafs conceded over the first period were the fewest they’ve given up in a single period this season, and is right in line with the kind of controlled hockey that Berube wants to play on the defensive end.
“We’re really doing a good job in the slot area, and we’re heavy down low in our zone, our D are doing a great job of killing plays, and our forwards are protecting the middle of the ice really well and that’s key,” the head coach said afterwards.
But the Leafs really opened the game up in the second period.
William Nylander went end-to-end to score his 11th of the season, picking up his 66th power-play goal in the process to pass Dave Keon for sole possession of sixth place in franchise history. And Morgan Rielly, with the secondary assist on the goal, notched his 400th career helper, becoming the third defenceman in Maple Leafs history to reach the mark, following Borje Salming and Tomas Kaberle.
The Toronto special teams were just getting started though. Mitch Marner and David Kampf broke in on a short-handed 2-on-1, with Kampf patiently outwaiting Montembeault before teeing up Marner to shoot into the empty net for his fourth of the season, extending his point streak to eight games. The goal was also the 10th short-handed marker in his career, pulling him into a tie with Rudy Migay and Lanny McDonald for ninth-most in team history.
The Canadiens pulled one back shortly afterwards, getting on the board just before the halfway point of the period when Brendan Gallagher swatted a rebound out of mid-air and past Woll for his seventh of the season.
But less than three minutes later, the Leafs restored their three-goal cushion, with Nylander and Marner working the space on the power play before finding Tavares in the slot, as the former captain followed up his own rebound to score his eighth of the season, and third in barely 24 hours.
The Canadiens finally showed some urgency in the third period, almost generating more shots in the final stanza than across the first two. But it was too little too late, and the Leafs absorbed most of their early threat in the period to hold on. Woll picked up his second victory of the season, on the back of 20 saves, while Montembeault finished with 23.
In fact, the only negative on the night was an injury to forward Max Pacioretty, who fell to the ice grabbing the back of his left leg in the first period. He was helped to the dressing room and did not return.
“Hopefully optimistic about that, but, yeah, never easy to see,” said Tavares, his linemate.
Toronto now heads into a fourth straight Atlantic Division game – on Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators – on a three-game winning streak, while the Canadiens have a Monday matinee in Buffalo against the Sabres.