Game 752
Maple Leafs 3, Canadiens 2
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario

Jack Campbell set a Toronto Maple Leafs record with his 10th consecutive win to start a season in a 3-2 victory against the Montréal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

Campbell, who made 32 saves, broke the Maple Leafs record set by Félix Potvin (October 7-28, 1993), Jacques Plante (December 12, 1970 – January 9, 1971) and John Ross Roach (January 31 – February 28, 1925). He also tied Canadiens goalie Carey Price for the NHL record for consecutive wins to start a season. Price won his first 10 games in 2016-17.

“We must be playing well to win 10 in a row,” Campbell said. “Just to get one win is a big deal because it’s a tough league. You need everybody to win, and that’s what we’ve been getting lately. It’s super special and an honour and something I’ll be able to look back on some time but right now it’s just back to work and try to get better.”

Auston Matthews and Zach Hyman each had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs (27-10-3), who have won five in a row and eight of nine.

“He deserves everything that has come his way in terms of the attention,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said of Campbell. “I know our team is thrilled for him and clearly played hard for him in that third period. Jack is always gracious and passes off a lot of attention to his teammates, but I think it’s important to give Jack his moment here.”

Corey Perry scored twice for the Canadiens (17-10-9), who had won four of five. Jake Allen made 29 saves.

“It wasn’t an ideal start, but Perry had a big goal to even it up,” Allen said. “It definitely wasn’t our game in the first. I thought we did a good job the first 15 minutes there in the second and in the third, they sort of put us on our heels for sure in the first 10 minutes. We battled back and gave ourselves a chance, but just a little too late.”

T.J. Brodie scored his first goal with the Maple Leafs and ended a 40-game drought at 2:32 of the third period for a 2-1 lead.

It was his first regular-season goal since March 8, 2020 with the Calgary Flames.

“It took a little bit longer than I would have liked, but you definitely want it to mean something,” Brodie said. “It was just a bang-bang play where it hit off a couple feet and popped out to me, and luckily it went in.”

Hyman made it 3-1 at 10:21 on a rebound of Matthews’ shot.

Perry scored on a rebound at the top of the crease at 17:45 for the 3-2 final.

Matthews scored his NHL-leading 28th goal on a wraparound 54 seconds into the first period to give Toronto a 1-0 lead. He has scored in six of his past seven games and has seven goals during that span.

Perry tied it 1-1 at 2:15 of the first period when he took a pass from Nick Suzuki and shot between Campbell’s pads from the slot.

“We were sloppy with the puck (in the first period), and then you saw in the second period what we could do,” Perry said. “We kind of fell asleep for a little bit in the third again and found a way to get one and try and tie it up at the end, but we fell short.”

Montréal outshot Toronto 17-4 in the second period.

“In that second period we couldn’t really find our game there, and they definitely controlled the play and had a lot of momentum,” Matthews said. “They were directing a lot of pucks towards our net, and (Campbell) came up big and made some huge saves. It wasn’t great hockey by us, but he was just a brick wall in there.”

NOTES: The Maple Leafs were without forward William Nylander, who was placed in NHL COVID-19 protocol earlier Wednesday. Toronto forward Alexander Barabanov played for the first time since March 1 and had an assist on Brodie’s goal for his first NHL point…Campbell hasn’t lost in 398 days since his last loss, a 2-1 defeat at the Anaheim Ducks on March 6, 2020…Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin has not scored in his past 18 games (February 23 against the Ottawa Senators).

Story property of NHL.com, photo property of The Philadelphia Inquirer

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BOXSCORE
1st Period
TOR GOAL – 00:54 – Matthews (Mikheyev, Hyman)
MTL GOAL – 02:15 – Perry (Suzuki, Edmundson)
MTL PEN – 09:18 – team, too many men on the ice
MTL PEN – 10:25 – Evans, slashing

2nd Period
TOR PEN – 15:13 – Matthews, roughing

3rd Period
TOR GOAL – 02:32 – Brodie (Barabanov, Simmonds)
TOR GOAL – 10:21 – Hyman (Matthews, Marner)
TOR PEN – 12:03 – Dermott, tripping
MTL EA GOAL – 17:45 – Perry (Anderson, Toffoli)

GOALTENDERS
TOR – Campbell (W, 32-34)
MTL – Allen (L, 29-32)

SHOTS ON GOAL
TOR – 13+4+15 = 32
MTL – 7+17+10 = 34

ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Jack Campbell, Michael Hutchinson. Defence: Zach Bogosian, T.J. Brodie, Travis Dermott, Justin Holl, Jake Muzzin, Morgan Rielly (A). Forwards: Alexander Barabanov, Pierre Engvall, Alex Galchenyuk, Zach Hyman, Alexander Kerfoot, Mitchell Marner (A), Auston Matthews, Ilya Mikheyev, Wayne Simmonds, Jason Spezza, John Tavares (C), Joe Thornton.
MTL – Goaltenders: Jake Allen, Cayden Primeau. Defence: Joel Edmundson, Brett Kulak, Victor Mete, Jeff Petry (A), Alexander Romanov, Shea Weber (C). Forwards: Josh Anderson, Paul Byron (A), Phillip Danault, Jonathan Drouin, Jake Evans, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Artturi Lehkonen, Corey Perry, Eric Staal, Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar, Tyler Toffoli.

TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 27-10-3 (.713)
MTL – 17-10-9 (.597)

ATTENDANCE
0

THREE STARS
⭐ Jack Campbell (TOR)
⭐⭐ Zach Hyman (TOR)
⭐⭐⭐ Auston Matthews (TOR)