Toronto Maple Leafs forward Pontus Holmberg (29) celebrates with forwards Auston Matthews (34) and Max Domi (11) after scoring a goal against the Edmonton Oilers in the second period at Scotiabank Arena.Dan Hamilton/Reuters
The unsung heroes came out to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Bobby McMann scored two goals and added an assist, while Pontus Holmberg scored two goals himself en route to a 6-3 win against Connor McDavid and the Oilers on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena.
“That was pretty sweet, playing the Edmonton Oilers, watching them growing up.” McMann, the Wainwright, Alta. product, said. “It was a special one.”
Coming into Saturday, the matchup seemed all to be about McDavid and Auston Matthews as both superstar forwards are looking to put themselves in the history book this season in different categories.
McDavid is in search to become just the fourth different player – and the first since Wayne Gretzky in 1990-91 – to record 100 assists. He’s now on pace for 108 assists with 89 through 66 games. He now has more assists this season then Jamie Benn had points, 87, when he won the Art Ross Trophy in 2013-14.
Meanwhile, his American counterpart is looking to be the first player to score 70 goals in a regular season since Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny both scored 76 in 1992-93. After an empty-net goal tonight, he’s now on pace for 69 with 13 games left on the Leafs schedule.
“They’re going to define this generation of players with their skill set, how they’ve impacted the game,” Leafs captain John Tavares following practice on March 22 said of McDavid and Matthews. “They’re changing the game in a lot of ways. Really special.”
It was the Oilers who came storming out of the gates pressuring the Leafs off of the opening draw. Their quick attack led to a Matthew Knies tripping penalty that put the league’s second-best power play by percentage to work against 25th-ranked penalty kill.
Despite threatening on the ensuing man advantage, the Oilers couldn’t put anything past Leafs netminder Ilya Samsonov.
“I thought our guys just competed hard tonight,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Our penalty kill gave us life in the game.”
The Leafs netminder finished with 34 saves before he had to exit the game after going down with an injury following Edmonton’s third goal. Samsonov stretched to his right side in an attempt to stop a shot from Leon Draisaitl before staying down on the ice for an extended amount of time – he needed help getting to the dressing room.
“We hate seeing it, so just hope it’s nothing major or serious and he’'ll bounce back quickly,” Tavares said. “He was fantastic again tonight for us.”
Keefe said Samsonov will be “fine.”
“It’s not anything near what it appeared or what I thought it might have been,” he said.
McMann opened the scoring for the Leafs with his 12th goal of the season less than five minutes into the first frame. While facing the end boards, Tavares found McMann loose in the slot with a backhand pass and he made no mistake putting it past Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner.
McMann was on Toronto’s second line alongside William Nylander and Tavares as a result of a few missing bodies in the Leafs lineup. Toronto was without Mitch Marner due to a high-ankle sprain, Calle Jarnkrok due to a hand injury and Tyler Bertuzzi with an illness.
“They loaded up their first line and we just said, ‘We want our depth to carry us through,’” McMann said.
Unlike the Oilers, the Leafs found the back of the net on their first man-advantage opportunity. William Nylander tipped home a Timothy Liljegren shot-pass from the point to double the hosts lead with less than two minutes to go in the period.
Liljegren secured his second point of the night on the goal and now has 14 in his last 16.
“We didn’t capitalize on early opportunities in the first and that set us back,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We failed to score on two power plays and they scored on theirs and it snowballed from there.”
As the Oilers searched for the answer in the second, Samsonov remained stout in his net to keep the visitors at bay. Just before the five minute mark of the period the Leafs goaltender brought the Toronto crowd to its feet as he flashed the leather on a shot from Oilers defenceman Brett Kulak.
Shortly after, the Leafs rewarded their netminder with another goal. Holmberg buried it behind Skinner off a nice passing play between Matthews, Max Domi and himself. Matthews came away with the puck from along the boards before dishing it to Domi who then sent it to a wide-open Holmberg who had a gaping cage.
The Leafs didn’t stop pouring on there.
Less than three minutes later, Holmberg netted his second of the night off a pass from McMann while on a three-on-one rush. McMann then extended the lead to five after rifling a shot into the top corner and past Skinner from the right faceoff dot. Skinner was then pulled in favour of backup Calvin Pickard at the end of the second period after giving up five goals on 23 shots.
“Bobby has been excellent,” Keefe said. “He finished some great plays again tonight.”
As the Leafs protected their five-goal lead in the third period, Samsonov drew “Sammy!” chants from the crowd as he continued to hold down the fort. However, after nearly 45 minutes, the Oilers finally broke through the Leafs goaltender.
Zach Hyman squeaked the puck into the back of the net to put him one goal shy of the 50-goal landmark.
The Oilers then began to mount a comeback attempt shortly after with goals from Corey Perry and Leon Draisaitl. However, Matthews’ empty-netter with 12 seconds left sealed the deal as the Leafs head to play the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Sunday at 6 p.m.
“When we make those decisions to play that way and compete like that we’re hard to beat in that beat in that room,” Keefe said. “We’re capable of great things.”