Auston Matthews<\/a> suffered a season-ending knee\u00a0injury.<\/p>\nSunday\u2019s\u00a0gritty\u00a04-2\u00a0win over the Minnesota Wild\u00a0cam\u00a0without\u00a0top\u00a0defenceman\u00a0Oliver-Ekman Larsson after three veterans were\u00a0also\u00a0traded at the March 6 deadline.<\/p>\n
The Wild, a Stanley Cup contender, got all it could handle from a patchwork Leafs lineup that bolted into a 3-0 lead on three second-period tallies \u2014 including two from recent callup Bo Groulx. Vladmir Tarasenko\u2019s two goals in 23 seconds early in the third period tested Toronto\u2019s resolve before Matthew Knies muscled his way to an empty-net goal.<\/p>\n
Defenceman Jake McCabe blocked nine shots of the Leafs\u2019 28, with Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo playing one of their better games on the blueline.<\/p>\n
Stolarz\u00a0made 36 saves\u00a0to\u00a0collect\u00a0his first win since before the Olympic break, Feb. 3 in Edmonton.<\/p>\n
In a stretch of 72 seconds in the second period \u2014 a frame that\u2019s given the Leafs trouble all year \u2014 they got to Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt twice. John Tavares and Matias Maccelli set up Rielly\u2019s top-shelf snap, a confident rush contrasting season-long struggles in his own end.<\/p>\n
Troy Stecher then wristed a puck through traffic that was tipped by Groulx. After waiting since Nov. 7, 2021 since his previous NHL goal for Anaheim, Groulx then added his third in less than a week. He was in a perfect spot to gobble up a turnover at the blueline and put another high shot past Wallstedt.<\/p>\n
Both teams\u00a0played\u00a0and lost\u00a0the night before, the Wild to the\u00a0Rangers, the\u00a0only team\u00a0behind the\u00a0Leafs\u00a0in the Eastern Conference and thus anxious to\u00a0atone at\u00a0home.\u00a0But\u00a0Minnesota\u00a0failed to\u00a0crack Stolarz in the first period,\u00a0despite pressing the\u00a0Leafs\u00a0into turnovers\u00a0deep in their zone.<\/p>\n
Toronto went to Stolarz after Joseph Woll\u2019s 30 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss in Buffalo and made a couple of other changes. Ekman-Larsson, one of the few veterans remaining on the roster, went home to be with his wife for the birth of their newest child. That elevated recent scratch Stecher, while Henry Thrun was recalled from the Toronto Marlies on an emergency basis.<\/p>\n
Up front, coach Craig Berube gave winger Steven Lorentz a reprieve after putting Michael Pezzetta in the lineup for some physicality after expressing concern the former\u2019s 5-on-5 checking game has lapsed along with the Leafs playoff chances. Pezzetta, still sporting a shiner from a fight on his first shift in the Anaheim game, took a seat.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Leafs, who hit the 70-point mark,\u00a0play\u00a0the New York Islanders\u00a0on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Lhornby@postmedia.com<\/p>\n
X:\u00a0@sunhornby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The more that\u2019s been taken away from the Maple Leafs the past few games, the better they seem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[2210,532,1529,198,59029,5896,5,1127,795,611,3821,20,5172,10077,797,4688,38,885,159,4,930,7927,38506,66,31,5171,5928],"class_list":["post-505665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-anaheim","tag-auston-matthews","tag-brandon-carlo","tag-edmonton","tag-groulx","tag-henry-thrun","tag-hockey","tag-jake-mccabe","tag-jesper-wallstedt","tag-john-tavares","tag-joseph-woll","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mapleleafs","tag-matias-maccelli","tag-matthew-knies","tag-michael-pezzetta","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-morgan-rielly","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-nhl","tag-steven-lorentz","tag-stolarz","tag-tarasenko","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-torontomapleleafs","tag-troy-stecher"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116236938371274356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}