The Toronto Maple Leafs look to complete a perfect four-game road trip and avenge a shutout loss to the Canucks when the teams meet Saturday night in Vancouver.
Toronto answered a three-game losing skid by recording victories in Edmonton, Calgary and Seattle. The 3-1 win over the Kraken on Thursday improved the Maple Leafs to 14-8-2 on the road and put them one point behind the first-place Florida Panthers in the Atlantic Division.
Matthew Knies scored a goal in all three contests on the trek for Toronto. He has five goals and four assists in his last six games overall.
Bobby McMann extended his road goal-scoring streak to five games by converting on the power play late in the first period. He has scored a goal in four of his last five games overall.
“It’s fun hockey,” McMann said. “Everybody wants to score goals, and I think more than anything, I just want to contribute and keep this team rolling with wins.”
The Maple Leafs are 5-for-9 with the man advantage on the road trip and have scored a power-play goal in each game.
Toronto’s Anthony Stolarz was happy to contribute as well. He made 26 saves in his return from a near-two-month absence due to a knee injury.
“It was exciting,” Stolarz said. “Obviously, missing that much time, you want to come out and have a positive result and get the two points. But the guys did a great job (Thursday), helping me ease back into it and letting me see a lot of the pucks, and I just have to make the saves.”
Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko has been making his fair share of saves lately. He turned aside all 25 shots he faced in the Canucks’ 3-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday and added 33 saves in a 2-1 overtime victory versus the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
“Demko was great. … I think we could’ve gotten the puck to the net a little bit more,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “In an 82-game schedule, you are going to have these games where you’re going to have to grind it and find a way to win.”
Thatcher thwarted top overall pick Macklin Celebrini on a 2-on-1 rush at one end before Drew O’Connor scored on a penalty shot 33 seconds into overtime.
“They had a chance down on our end and we got a big save,” O’Connor said. “I just tried to beat my guy up the ice. It was a nice play by (Filip Chytil) to get it over to me.”
O’Connor, who was hooked by Celebrini, solved Vitek Vanecek on the penalty shot as Vancouver improved to 5-1-1 in its last seven games.
Canucks star Quinn Hughes, who leads the team in assists (45) and points (59), sat out his third straight game with an undisclosed injury.
Hughes scored and set up a goal and fellow defenseman Tyler Myers notched a pair of assists in Vancouver’s 3-0 win in Toronto on Jan. 11.
–Field Level Media
