The Toronto Maple Leafs will be out to extend their points streak to nine games Saturday night when they host the Vancouver Canucks.
The Maple Leafs left it late Thursday night to bump the streak to eight games (6-0-2) by rallying for a 2-1 overtime win on the road over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Former Flyer Scott Laughton tied the game for Toronto with a short-handed goal at 14:04 of the third period and rookie Easton Cowan notched the overtime winner.
“I thought (Cowan) was having a really good game, so I wanted to use him in OT,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “I thought he was on top of things all night, making strong plays, skating well. He was going to be in the picture in 3-on-3 and ended up getting it done.”
“We’re really just sticking to our system here,” Cowan said. “Listening to (Berube) and the other coaches, and we’re playing well. Our systems have been very good, our trap. Good defense leads to offense, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
The Canucks lost 5-1 to the host Detroit Red Wings on Thursday and are winless in five games (0-3-2).
“This is frustrating for sure,” said Jake DeBrusk, who scored for Vancouver. “When the puck goes in your net a lot, you don’t play the same way. You don’t want to give up goals, so you get back on your heels. You can’t do that in this league.”
The Canucks have dropped the first two games of a six-game road trip that continues with their first meeting of the season against the Maple Leafs.
Vancouver has allowed five goals four times and six goals twice in the past eight games.
“There’s going to be breakdowns at different times of the game,” Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers said. “It’s the same conversation all the time: Where does it start? Does it start with your breakouts, with your forecheck? If we spend more time doing the right things, getting pucks behind guys, getting on our forecheck more, it means we’re defending less. It means those breakdowns happen less.”
The Maple Leafs also got an important lift from goaltender Dennis Hildeby against the Flyers. Philadelphia had a chance to win in overtime but Hildeby stopped Trevor Zegras on a breakaway.
“In OT, it was nice to come up with a save,” said Hildeby, who made 22 saves. “You usually have to. It was a fun game to play for sure. I thought we played unbelievable. I think we really shut them down pretty much the entire game and 3-on-3 opens up a little, but we managed to get the win, so it felt good.”
Laughton was given a warm welcome on his return to Philadelphia.
“Definitely an emotional start to the game, probably took me a period to get going,” Laughton said.
Laughton also won 19 of 20 faceoffs.
“He’s an effort guy out there, a worker,” Berube said. “He’s got skill. He does a lot of work for us. I call him one of our dependables. Penalty-killing, out there in those situations when you’re defending the lead, those sorts of things.”
Toronto’s Auston Matthews was blanked after scoring six goals in his three previous games, snapping a five-game points streak (seven goals, four assists).
William Nylander and Jake McCabe did not play for the Maple Leafs because of lower-body injuries. Nylander could return on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
