Game 749
Maple Leafs 4, Canadiens 2
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Centre Bell, Montréal, Québec

Justin Holl and Ilya Mikheyev scored 42 seconds apart in the third period, and the Toronto Maple Leafs won their fourth straight, 4-2 against the Montréal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Wednesday.

Auston Matthews, who had scored in each of his previous eight games, had an assist for a point in 11 straight games (15 points; 11 goals, four assists) for Toronto (11-2-1), which has a nine-game point streak (8-0-1).

“There were just periods in the game where they kind of put their foot on the gas and we were back on our heels, and vice versa,” Matthews said. “So that’s a good team over there all throughout their lineup. They’ve got a lot of depth, great goaltending, and they play really tight defensively. So I think it’s a testament to our game tonight, just sticking with it and big goals by our guys, and hanging on at the end.”

Josh Anderson and Tomas Tatar scored for Montréal (8-3-2), which has lost three of six since starting 5-0-2. Carey Price made 20 saves.

“I think today it was a disappointing loss because I don’t think we were that bad,” Canadiens forward Joel Armia said. “There’s some areas we have to be better, and things like winning battles and staying strong on the puck, but I don’t know what the reason is for that.”

Frederik Andersen made 33 saves in his seventh straight start, and Jake Muzzin had three assists for the Maple Leafs.

“We didn’t give them much at all,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “In fact I had this the lowest number of scoring chances we gave up all season.”

Anderson scored for a fourth straight game on Montréal’s first shot of the game. He drove the right side and scored his ninth goal on a shot between Andersen’s pads for a 1-0 lead at 1:16 of the first period.

“Coming into this game we knew that it was going to be a challenge,” Anderson said. “I thought we set the tempo for the start of the game and overall played pretty good. It was just a few bounces went their way tonight and they capitalized.”

Anderson has six points (five goals, one assist) during a five-game point streak.

Toronto tied it at 1-1 at 15:18 of the second period when Travis Dermott scored after the Canadiens were unable to get the puck out of their zone during 4-on-4 play.

Dermott, who missed the past two games because of a leg injury, sent a wrist shot over Price’s right shoulder for his first goal in 37 games since January 2, 2020.

“Four times we had the puck and gave it back to them in our zone before they scored that goal,” Montréal coach Claude Julien said. “So that took the wind out of our sails a bit and gave them some energy.”

Mikheyev put the Maple Leafs up 2-1 at 1:50 of the third when he scored his first goal since December 27, 2019 during another 4-on-4 sequence.

John Tavares set up Holl’s goal that made it 3-1 with a pass back to the right point. Holl carried the puck towards the middle and scored his first goal of the season on a rising slap shot from the top of the slot at 2:32.

Tatar drew the Canadiens within 3-2 with his fourth goal at 16:40.

Matthews got his assist when Zach Hyman scored into an empty net to make it 4-2 with 1:04 remaining.

“Most importantly it was a good win,” Tavares said. “Obviously a lot of importance on the game and the guys were excited about the opportunity knowing it’s a strong Montréal team. It wasn’t our best for the first two periods but we got better as the game went on and we didn’t give up a lot and just got our game going.”

NOTES: Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner’s eight-game point streak (15 points; three goals, 12 assists) ended…Armia had one takeaway in 15:25 after missing seven games because of a concussion…Anderson’s goal streak tied the longest by a player in his first season with the Canadiens set by Didier Pitre in 1917-18 and matched by Erik Cole in 2011-12. He was traded to the Canadiens from the Columbus Blue Jackets on October 6.

Story property of NHL.com, photo property of The Toronto Sun

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BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL GOAL – 01:16 – Anderson (Drouin)
TOR PEN – 10:37 – Engvall, high sticking
MTL PEN – 15:08 – Weber, hooking
MTL PEN – 18:38 – Danault, hooking

2nd Period
TOR PEN – 09:02 – Bogosian, holding
MTL PEN – 13:47 – Evans, slashing
TOR PEN – 13:47 – Holl, roughing
TOR GOAL – 15:18 – Dermott (Muzzin, Tavares)
MTL PEN – 20:00 – Edmundson, interference
TOR PEN – 20:00 – Hyman, embellishment

3rd Period
TOR GOAL – 01:50 – Holl (Tavares, Muzzin)
TOR GOAL – 02:32 – Mikheyev (Kerfoot, Hyman)
MTL GOAL – 16:40 – Tatar (Chiarot, Romanov)
TOR EN GOAL – 18:56 – Hyman (Matthews, Muzzin)

GOALTENDERS
TOR – Andersen (W, 33-35)
MTL – Price (L, 20-23)

SHOTS ON GOAL
TOR – 6+6+12 = 24
MTL – 9+13+13 = 35

ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Frederik Andersen, Michael Hutchinson. Defence: Zach Bogosian, T.J. Brodie, Travis Dermott, Justin Holl, Jake Muzzin, Morgan Rielly (A). Forwards: Travis Boyd, Pierre Engvall, Zach Hyman, Alexander Kerfoot, Mitchell Marner, Auston Matthews (A), Ilya Mikheyev, William Nylander, Nic Petan, Jason Spezza, John Tavares (C), Jimmy Vesey.
MTL – Goaltenders: Jake Allen, Carey Price. Defence: Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson, Brett Kulak, Jeff Petry (A), Alexander Romanov, Shea Weber (C). Forwards: Josh Anderson, Joel Armia, Phillip Danault, Jonathan Drouin, Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher (A), Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Artturi Lehkonen, Corey Perry, Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar, Tyler Toffoli.

TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 11-2-1 (.821)
MTL – 8-3-2 (.692)

ATTENDANCE
0

THREE STARS
⭐ Zach Hyman (TOR)
⭐⭐ John Tavares (TOR)
⭐⭐⭐ Josh Anderson (MTL)