Leafs shut out Red Wings in final game before All-Star break

 

By @StefanKubus – 

DETROIT – The Toronto Maple Leafs entered Wednesday night’s game with a 8-0-2 record in its past 10 road games and an 18-4-5 record when scoring first.

Budding star forward Auston Matthews made sure the Leafs continued building on those trends, as the USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program alum opened the scoring with his 23rd of the season in his rookie campaign. Matthews corralled a loose puck through a Red Wings’ defender’s skates and shoveled a backhand shot high past Petr Mrazek’s glove.

That was the first of four goals Toronto scored en route to a 4-0 shutout win over the Detroit Red Wings Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena. Mrazek allowed four goals on 28 shots, while Frederik Anderson stopped 22 shots for Toronto en route to the shutout.

“If you look back at the last six, seven games, we’ve been playing pretty good hockey,” Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “We didn’t get the points in the games that we wanted to, but if we keep playing like this, it’s not gonna be over. We still have a chance, we’ve just gotta win some games.”

Detroit fell to 20-20-9 on the season with the loss.

“I thought the first period was real tight-checking,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We made a mistake there and it was in our net, but I thought neither team had a whole bunch of chances. I thought it was real tight-checking. I thought in the second, we weren’t fast enough in our D zone so, as a result, we spent too much time in our D zone. I thought in the third, we came out and pushed real hard, I thought we had some real chances and then they were able to score and it took the wind out of our sails.”

Following his first goal early, Matthews nearly potted his second of the game with the Leafs on a power play in the dying seconds of the opening period as he just missed wide on a one-timer.

With 4:25 to play in the second stanza, Polak found the back of the net with a shot from the right point that deflected off Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson’s leg and in the net. Warren native and University of Michigan and USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program alum Matt Hunwick drew an assist on the goal.

van Riemsdyk put the Leafs up 3-0 at 4:19 of the final period, as he chipped a backhand shot off Xavier Ouellet’s stick at the side of the goal. The puck rolled up Ouellet’s stick, off Mrazek’s chest and in.

“It’s a tough goal, it’s hard to keep coming from behind and then in the second half of a back-to-back it’s hard to keep coming from behind,” Blashill said. “You want to get the lead and run with it there, so that third goal is a tough one for sure.”

Soshnikov extended the Toronto lead to four just minutes later, as he raced down the right side of the ice, his off wing, and fired a low wrister from the top of the right circle that beat Mrazek on the far side. It was just Soshnikov’s second goal of the season in 36 games.

That all but sealed the win for Toronto at that juncture of the contest.

“We couldn’t get a lot of things going tonight, we tried, but we got stuck for too much time in our own zone, couldn’t generate enough offense,” Detroit defenseman Kronwall said. “We had some chances, but couldn’t get any through.”

The Wings are back in action on Jan. 31, as they host the New Jersey Devils at The Joe following the All-Star break.

“Sometimes you want to come right back and play after a game like this, but we certainly played lots here in this last little bit, so it certainly doesn’t hurt,” Blashill said of the All-Star break timing.