The Blackhawks came into Toronto on Wednesday night looking to pick up more points in order to make a push for the playoffs in the last 13 games of the regular season.
The Maple Leafs were looking to regain their form after a dismal showing on Monday night versus the Tampa Bay Lightning. They got shellacked in that game, 6-2, and Auston Matthews had a strong opinion on what the team did wrong. A potent offense led by Matthews, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares looked to inject some life into their home rink after Monday’s ho-hum game from their offense. For the Blackhawks, Brendan Perlini was fresh off the first hat-trick of his career, and looking to continue a productive run he has had in the last few games with six goals in the last five games. Patrick Kane looked to add more points to what has been an impressive season in terms of keeping the Blackhawks in the playoff hunt despite “iffy” play on the back end. As a team, the Blackhawks handled the Arizona Coyotes very well, allowing only one early goal in what was a dominant 7-1 win. Corey Crawford stopped 24 of 25 shots in another quality start since returning from his concussion.
The lines were as follows:
Brandon Saad– Jonathan Toews – Dylan Sikura
Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Strome – Brendan Perlini
Dominik Kahun – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Chris Kunitz – David Kampf – Marcus Kruger
Erik Gustafsson – Duncan Keith
Brent Seabrook – Gustav Forsling
Carl Dahlstrom – Connor Murphy
first Period:
After a barrage of shots in the first three minutes, and maintaining possession for quite some time, the puck found its way back to Duncan Keith, who fired a slap shot towards the net that redirected off of the Maple Leafs’ William Nylander’s stick and squirted through Frederik Andersen and into the net at the 3:19 mark, 1-0 Blackhawks.
The ol' squeaker!
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— NBC Sports Hockey (@NBCSportsHockey) March 13, 2019
The Blackhawks kept generating chance after chance, and got plenty of time inside of the Leaf’s zone. Corey Crawford wasn’t tested very much at all early on, with most of his work helping keep the puck moving. At the 12:55 mark, Dylan Strome got the puck into the zone and passed it from the side boards to the middle. Brendan Perlini made a nice juke on the Maple Leafs’ defenseman and shot a wrist shot past Andersen, 2-0 Blackhawks.
Nifty little move right there, Brendan. 👀@Bubzp11 extends the @NHLBlackhawks lead. #WNH
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— NBC Sports Hockey (@NBCSportsHockey) March 13, 2019
The Maple Leafs’ best chances of the period came under 5 minutes remaining. Connor Brown couldn’t corral a pass across from him, with Brent Seabrook managing to get in the way enough to get a piece of the shot at a moment when Crawford was down and out. Then, William Nylander got a good chance when the puck was partially blocked by the referee, and he was able to get a good shot off that Crawford stopped. At the 17:13 mark, Patrick Kane then got the Blackhawks off on a 2 on 1 down the ice, drawing the defense towards him and then passing it in front to Domink Kahun, who put the puck past Andersen, 3-0 Blackhawks.
Dylan Sikura then got the puck out in front to Brandon Saad, who was able to put the puck past Andersen at the 18:46 mark of the period. That put the Blackhawks up 4-0 going into the locker room.
Second Period:
The Blackhawks ended up chasing Andersen after the first period, as Garrett Sparks came out in goal to begin the period. The Leafs came on strong to, showing much more energy that they had in the first period. Corey Crawford stole a goal out in front after the Leafs got the puck there after some good passing from Auston Matthews to William Nylander, who was stymied by Crawford at the 2:20 mark of the period. The Hawks fourth line stood tall in their assignments in the period, and putting a lot of pressure on Sparks and the Leafs’ defense. John Tavares broke into the zone on a turnover caused by Trevor Moore along the side boards and ripped a puck on net that rang off the pipe. Shortly thereafter, Crawford made a few more good stops on a surge of pressure by Toronto, who weren’t able to get any pucks past him. At the 12:32 mark, Brendan Perlini came storming up the wing and fed it over to Alex DeBrincat streaking down the middle of the ice for another Blackhawks goal, making it 5-0.
https://twitter.com/HabsCorner/status/1105991172433084418
With some more good chances at the end of the period, the Blackhawks weren’t able to put any more by Sparks. With under 2 minutes left in the period, the Maple Leafs finally got a goal past Corey Crawford on a tip in front by Andreas Johnsson off of a Morgan Rielly shot from the point. The period ended the same way it began, with the Blackhawks still leading by a lot, 5-1.
Third Period:
Corey Crawford left after the second period due to an illness, so Collin Delia stepped in to relive him and was tested very early on. He had to make several good stops in the opening few minutes of the period, and was successful in stopping the Leafs’ initial chances. The Maple Leafs found the back of the net at 7:57, however, after Collin Delia sprawled out to stop Johnsson on a chance out in front and couldn’t get back to stop Auston Matthews on the rebound chance, making it 5-2 Blackhawks. Shortly after, Patrick Kane slashed Jake Muzzin on a light tap to the hands, putting the Maple Leafs on the power play against the league’s worst penalty kill. The Leafs got a give and go together, with Mitch Marner finding Morgan Rielly at the point to make the score 5-3.
https://twitter.com/HabsCorner/status/1106002060254822403
Delia was tested time and time again after that, and managed to stop almost everything else put his way, even a Trevor Moore chance out in front of the net that knocked him over. John Tavares managed to force one more past Delia in the last furious surge from Toronto, making the score 5-4. Despite every effort to make the comeback complete, and some efforts to thwart it, including Collin Delia bumping into the net to knock it off its moorings.