Montreal Canadiens easily thrash Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

Montreal Canadiens easily thrash Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3. Here is the game summary and hightlights.

Saturday, January 7, 2017

GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY

ON THE SCORESHEET

Tyler Bozak put the Maple Leafs on the board with a power play goal at 8:25 of the first period. Bozak has points (2-2-4) in three consecutive games.

Nazem Kadri scored the second of the game for Toronto with a power play goal at 16:01 of the first period. Kadri has goals (3) in three consecutive games and is three goals from the 100 career NHL goal milestone.

James van Riemsdyk scored the third goal of the night for the Maple Leafs at 18:15 of the second period. He extended his assist streak to five games (8 assists) with a pair of assists in the first period on goals scored by Bozak and Kadri. Twelve of van Riemsdyk’s 14 goals this season have been scored at even-strength.

Mitch Marner tied a career-high with three assists in tonight’s game. Marner recorded three primary assists on goals scored by Bozak, Kadri and van Riemsdyk. Marner leads the Maple Leafs in multi-point games (10) and three-point games (4).

Nikita Zaitsev registered his 15^th assist of the season on van Riemsdyk’s second period goal. Zaitsev is tied for second among Maple Leaf defencemen in assists.

Frederik Andersen stopped 26 Canadiens shots in tonight’s game.

SHOTS FIRED

The Maple Leafs outshot the Canadiens by a 36-31 margin in all situations and 21-20 at 5-on-5.

Toronto had a 67-49 edge in shot attempts in all situations and 37-31 at 5-on-5.

Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and James van Riemsdyk each registered four shots on goal.

Matt Hunwick and Auston Matthews each registered eight shot attempts.

ROAD SCHOLARS

The Maple Leafs are 10-7-2 at home this season and 2-6-1 in the second leg of back-to-backs.

Toronto’s all-time record is 293-341-88-13 in 735 games against the Canadiens and 186-128-45-8 in games played in Toronto.

Toronto is 12-7-3 against the Eastern Conference this season and 8-4-1 against the Atlantic Division.

Tonight’s attendance is 19,796.

MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS

OF NOTE…

The Maple Leafs have scored a league-high 46 goals in the first period this season.

Toronto is 3-9-3 in games where their opponent scores first.

The Maple Leafs are now 1-8-1 when trailing after one period and 2-11-1 when trailing after two periods.

Toronto has a 5-9-5 record when outshooting their opponents.

Maple Leafs rookies combined for four points (4 assists) in tonight’s game. Toronto’s rookies had combined for 147 points (57 goals, 90 assists) in the Maple Leafs’ previous 38 games.

UPCOMING GAMES:

Friday, Jan. 13 at New York Rangers, 7:00 p.m. (TSN 4, TSN 1050)

Saturday, Jan. 14 at Ottawa Senators, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, FAN 590)

Tuesday, Jan. 17 vs. Buffalo Sabres, 7:30 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, TSN 1050)

Thursday, Jan. 19 vs. New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

Saturday, Jan. 21 vs. Ottawa Senators, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, TSN 1050)

POSTGAME QUOTES:

HEAD COACH MIKE BABCOCK

On the game getting heated at times:

I didn’t think it was that chippy to be honest with you.

On Marner’s play tonight:

I thought Mitch was real good. I thought he was skating and jumping. Obviously we didn’t start on time and got ourselves in trouble. Some guys weren’t good enough, other guys played really good. We did lots of good things tonight but obviously we can’t be chasing the game.

On the decision to put Marner on the penalty kill:

I thought he was good. We had no penalty killers so someone had to go. I saw him penalty kill in junior a ton so we fired him out there. He’s got a good nose and good jump and a good stick. I thought he played good.

On if the back-to-back schedule affected Andersen’s play:

I don’t know. Obviously I didn’t make the right decision there. In saying that, the last time we did it we thought it was the right decision. This time it wasn’t the right decision. It’s amazing how winning and losing goes into those things.

On trailing 3-2 after the first period:

I thought we were still in a good spot there, I thought we were in a good spot at 4-3 too. I thought at 5-3 the game was over. We still pushed and had lots of chances but I thought the fifth killed us for sure. And yet, I don’t think you want to be going against Carey Price saying you’ve got to get five. I don’t think that’s the approach. To me, we started the game – a simple play, we lost the faceoff, got knocked down, guys didn’t face the puck and they shot it in our net. The second goal was pretty good. Now we’re scrambling back. We get it to 2-2 and you’ve got to know the time on the clock, you can’t give up that [third] goal in the end. Obviously the fifth goal we can’t give up. You add it all up, we’ve got a four-day break. Get restarted and get ready to go.

FREDERIK ANDERSEN (26 SAVES)

On playing both legs of a back-to-back:

I think you’ve just got to focus on the game. Sometimes your focus is not really there but you have to be a pro and be able to get up for that second game. It wasn’t my best game but some good things and some bad things too. I think the guys did a good job coming back from those two-goal deficits. A couple of times I made a mistake and it let them pad the lead.

ZACH HYMAN (3 HITS, 3 SHOT ATTEMPTS)

On heated moments in tonight’s game:

It’s a rivalry and they’re fun games to play in and everybody wants to win them.

On his goaltender interference penalty:

It happens fast, the ref made the call on it. That’s hockey.

On Weber confronting him as time expired in the second period:

I’d rather him do that than punch me in the back of the head while I’m down, so I have no problem with him coming after me after that. I’d rather not the punch in the head there.

On if the team feels more pressure to win with their place in the standings:

No, we just go out there and play our game. If we play our game, we have a chance to win every night and that’s kind of what we’ve been doing and it’s something we’re going to continue to do.

MITCH MARNER (3 ASSISTS)

On playing Montreal:

It’s been a heated rivalry for a long time and these are games everyone loves playing in. It was like that again tonight and it was fun to play in.

On killing penalties tonight:

I kind of got a little experience back in London doing it the past two years there. Obviously after the thing that happened with [Gauthier] we were short one and obviously it feels pretty good that he has trust in me on the PK. It’s a thing you want to get better at every time you’re on the ice and you try and learn as many things as possible.

On his third three-assist game of the season:

I think it’s the guys that I play with. They get open for me and get me the puck and find space for me. Big credit to all of them. Obviously me, [Bozak] and [van Riemsdyk] are doing a lot of give-and-gos and creating space for all of us. It’s things like that that get you points, but obviously we want the win and we’ve got to be more effective that way.

JAMES van RIEMSDYK (1 GOAL, 2 ASSISTS)

On playing Montreal:

It’s always a big rivalry game for us and for them. We’re trying to chase them down in the standings and they’re trying to extend their lead. It’s going to be a highly contested game.

On why this game was higher scoring than the previous games between the teams:

That’s a good question. It just seemed like that type of game from the start where they set the tone off the first shift and then we got playing a bit more as the game went on. It was a lot of back-and-forth and I thought it was a pretty exciting game for the fans to watch.

On the production of his line:

I think we’ve had some good chemistry and lately it seems that we’re finding each other. On a couple of those goals I think we’re just seeing the plays right now and executing coming up the ice. Those are good things obviously.