Toronto Maple Leafs thrash Dallas Stars 3-1

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…

Toronto Maple Leafs thrash Dallas Stars 3-1. Here is the game summary and highlights from the game played on Tuesday, February 7, 2017
 

GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY

ON THE SCORESHEET

Jake Gardiner opened the scoring for the Maple Leafs at 9:09 of the first period and later added his 18^th assist of the season on Auston Matthews’ second period goal. Gardiner has scored six of his seven goals this season on home ice. Tonight’s game is his third multi-point game of the season.

Auston Matthews registered his team-leading 25^th goal of the season at 17:32 of the second period. Matthews has goals (2) in two consecutive games and points (2-3-5) in three consecutive games.

Nikita Zaitsev scored his second goal of the season at 7:26 of the third period. Zaitsev has points (1-2-3) in two consecutive games.

Mitch Marner picked up the primary assist on Gardiner’s first period goal. Marner leads the Maple Leafs in assists this season (32) and has points (3-4-7) in five consecutive games.

Tyler Bozak had the secondary assist on Gardiner’s goal in the first period. With the assist, Bozak moved into a tie for 30^th on the Maple Leafs all-time assists list, matching Ron Stewart’s total of 182 assists.

Nazem Kadri registered the primary assist on Zaitsev’s third period goal. Kadri has assists (3) in three consecutive games.

Morgan Rielly also notched an assist in the third period on Zaitsev’s power play goal. Rielly has three assists over his last two games.

Curtis McElhinney made 39 saves in the win. Tonight’s game was McElhinney’s first as a Maple Leafs goaltender at Air Canada Centre.

SHOTS FIRED

The Maple Leafs were outshot by the Stars by a 40-34 margin in all situations and by a 28-24 margin at 5-on-5.

Dallas had a 75-62 lead in shot attempts in all situations and a 55-44 lead in shot attempts at 5-on-5.

Jake Gardiner led the Maple Leafs with five shots on goal.

Jake Gardiner and James van Riemsdyk each registered eight shot attempts.

HOME SWEET HOME

The Maple Leafs are 13-8-3 at home this season and 3-8-1 in the second leg of back-to-backs.

Toronto’s all-time record is 93-90-28-1 in 212 games against the Stars and 54-37-17-0 record in games played in Toronto.

Toronto is 8-8-5 against the Western Conference this season and 3-5-2 against the Central Division.

MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS

OF NOTE…

Maple Leafs rookies combined for two goals and one assist tonight and have amassed 205 points (81 goals, 124 assists) in 52 games this season.

Toronto is 20-5-5 when scoring first this season.

The Maple Leafs are now 17-1-5 when leading after one period and 20-1-7 when leading after two periods.

Toronto has a 16-7-4 record when outshot by their opponent.

Tyler Bozak won 67 percent (4 won, 2 lost) of his defensive zone faceoffs in tonight’s game.

Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov each started 93.3 percent of their shifts in the defensive or neutral zone in tonight’s game.

UPCOMING GAMES:

Thursday, Feb. 9 vs. St. Louis Blues, 8:00 p.m. (Sportsnet Ontario, TSN 1050)

Saturday, Feb. 11 vs. Buffalo Sabres, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, FAN 590)

Tuesday, Feb. 14 vs. New York Islanders, 7:30 p.m. (TSN 4, FAN 590)

Wednesday, Feb. 15 at Columbus Blue Jackets, 7:00 p.m. (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)

Saturday, Feb. 18 vs. Ottawa Senators, 7:00 p.m. (Hockey Night in Canada, FAN 590)

POSTGAME QUOTES:

HEAD COACH MIKE BABCOCK

On tonight’s game:

I thought we had lots of good players tonight. Obviously [McElhinney] was good in net, made some big saves. I thought we were way harder around our net and in our zone than we were last night where we were light in that area. You’ve got to give the guys credit on a back-to-back, they competed hard in that area. I thought our D in general was solid tonight. It was positive. Dallas played way better than the last time we played them even though they thumped us last time. They were way more organized and they were more determined this time than they were last time. It was a better game.

On McElhinney’s performance:

He’s a good pro. He gets on the ice first; he works hard every single day. So, when it’s his turn it’s not lucky that he’s good, he’s earned the right to play good and feel good about himself. He’s a great example – we’re fortunate, I think we’ve done a good job of that. Smith is like that too. He eats right, lives right, trains right. It’s important to your young guys – especially when you have so many – to see what good pros do when you watch them. It’s good for them too. [McElhinney] flat-out works, does it all right and when your partner does that he goes out and he sets the tone. Now the challenge is back for [Andersen].

On the team protecting the lead in the third:

We got some saves, but I thought we did the job. I didn’t like that we took a penalty; I didn’t like Carrick taking the penalty there. All in all, we turned it into something it’s not. It’s just a game. Play like the game is tied and go get the next one. Don’t be conservative, don’t back up, don’t protect anything, just play the damn game. When it goes bad for you, you start making it a bigger deal than it is. It’s no big deal, just play.

JAKE GARDINER (1 GOAL, 1 ASSIST)

On earning a win in the second leg of a back-to-back:

I think being such a young team, that back-to-back thing doesn’t really mean too much for us. We’ve got to have fresh legs every single night no matter when we’re playing and I think that showed tonight.

On the team’s defensive play:

Yeah, that was big. It starts in the neutral zone coming back, making easy plays, breaking the puck out fast. When we’re in the D-zone – blocking shots, boxing guys out. Obviously [McElhinney] played a heck of a game so that was great.

On Matthews getting credit for the second goal:

That was funny. He definitely tipped it, it was a heck of a tip. It all started with [Brown] holding the guy up for a second, letting me get some time to get that shot through.

On if he and Matthews talked about who got the second goal:

I was like, ‘Did you get it?’ and he goes, ‘Uh, yeah.’ And then he wanted me to go first through the line so I wasn’t really sure what was going on. It’s great hand-eye by him and a great goal.

On the defence contributing offensively:

It’s always huge when we can contribute. We haven’t had the most goals from the back-end this year but it’s nice. Hopefully they’ll start going in more.

AUSTON MATTHEWS (1 GOAL, 19:45 TOI)

On the resilience the team showed in the third period:

I think that’s part of the game we’ve wanted to show for a while now. For us to do it, especially back-to-back, it’s pretty positive for us.

On the key to tightening up the defensive side of the game:

Just not getting ahead of ourselves, not cheating for offence. Just making sure we’re under the puck, still in good position – they’ve got a lot of firepower up front so we want to make sure we limit that. I think we did tonight for the most part.

On McElhinney’s play in goal:

He was huge for us tonight. He made a lot of really good saves, kept us in the game plenty of times. That’s really huge.

On Gardiner’s offensive contributions:

It was awesome, he was playing great tonight. It’s something he likes to do, he’s really offensive, he can make plays. It’s definitely good for us when he’s doing that kind of stuff moving forward here.

CURTIS McELHINNEY (39 SAVES, WIN)

On the team’s defensive play:

It was great. I think especially in front of our net we did a much better job tonight. Most of the shots were generated from the outside and I thought the guys battled real hard inside.

On the number of saves he made tonight:

Yeah, it’s one of those things. You just want to be big in there and pucks were hitting me. The rebounds were there too but the guys were doing a good job of clearing it out. I felt pretty comfortable the whole game.

On getting himself prepared to start tonight:

I think the biggest thing was the relief appearance I made against Dallas was tough, not really the result I wanted going in there. I think there was certainly a little motivation coming back here tonight.

On his comfort level with the team:

Pretty good. My opportunities have been pretty consistent so far and I’ve felt good in there. They’re doing a good job in front of me.

On getting the start at home:

It was good, it was a lot of fun. It was a long road trip for us so I think it was nice to come back home. Obviously to pick up a win after a tough loss the other night was a big one for us.