Folks, it happened again.
The Nashville Predators were winning a low-event hockey game to start the third period, up 1-0 on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Jonathan Marchessault scored on a very fluky goal in the first period, as the puck bounced off the back wall and glass and dropped in front of Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll, and Marchessault pushed the puck in for the early lead and his 500th career NHL point – just the third active undrafted player to accomplish this feat.
In a span of five minutes and six seconds after second intermission, the entire game had turned upside down. Nashville had just three shots on goal in the second, but had played incredible defense during the period. With just twelve shots through two periods, Nashville was going to have to step up offensively to keep up with a dangerous Toronto team. But as it’s been all season long, they did not.
Auston Matthews scored two goals in the first 2:30 of the third period to give Toronto the lead.
After Toronto’s second goal, Simon Benoit got called for tripping on Luke Evangelista and Nashville would get a chance on the power play to try and regain momentum. Instead, Steven Stamkos tripped Mitch Marner 28 seconds later, making it a 4 on 4 – and not to be outdone, Marchessault also got called for tripping Marner, giving Toronto a 5 on 3 and William Nylander took a tic-tac-toe pass from Marner and Matthew Knies and just five minutes and six seconds in, Toronto was up 3-1
There was a push at the end of the game – Mark Jankowski finally scored his first of the year to bring the score to a deja-vu inducing 3-2 Toronto lead, but Nashville couldn’t get much pressure after pulling Juuse Saros.
Toronto nearly scored on the empty net as time expired, but the hockey gods felt it to be funnier to have yet another 3-2 loss on Nashville’s record, and so Nashville fell to 7-13-6, good for 31st in the NHL and faces off against the 30th best team, Montreal, tomorrow night.
Three Stars of the Game
Third Star: TOR F Matthew Knies: 1 assist, 1 point
Second Star: TOR F Mitch Marner: 3 assists, 3 points
First Star: TOR F Auston Matthews: 2 goals, 2 points