Frederik Andersen repelled 31 shots, on the road to a first shutout this season and a 16th in his career, as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-0 on Saturday night.
“It’s a tough building against a really good team. We aere talking about the first period being key for us and I thought we came out flying, skating really well and we didn’t allow too much.” Andersen said.
Morgan Rielly had two goals and John Tavares had a goal and a helping hand to help the Maple Leafs claim their sixth win in as many outings this season. Zach Hyman and Patrick Marleau also hit the target, while Kasperi Kapanen collected two assists.
“Guys are willing and able to accept more responsibility, more minutes and bigger situations. The strength of his team is the depth. I think there are lots of guys that can take that responsibility.” Rielly said.
The Maple Leafs registered their first victory in the absence of center star Auston Matthews with a shoulder injury. They had scored just one goal in each of their two consecutive losses without Matthews, who has 10 goals and 16 points in 11 games this season.
Evgeni Malkin saw his streak of consecutive games with at least one point stopped at nine and the Penguins suffered a third setback in a row.
“You win a few games in a row and you feel good about yourself, but the league has a funny way of humbling you and right now we’ve been humbled. We didn’t deserve to win tonight.” Penguin coach Mike Sullivan said.
Frederik Andersen makes 31 saves for Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. (Source:www.nhl.com)
“We got beat by a team that was hungry. When we come with the right attitude and emotional investment, the rest of our game follow suit. If we’re not invested, we can look ordinary, and I think that was the case tonight.” Sullivan added.
Matt Murray made 26 saves. He briefly left the game in the second period due to a problem with his equipment. Casey DeSmith took over and was perfect on both shots at him.
Meanwhile, Kyle Brodziak had his first two goals of the season, Connor McDavid had at least one point in his seventh straight game and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-3.
For Brodziak, this was his first goal in the Oilers’ uniform since March 27, 2009. Brodziak, 34, made his NHL debut with the Oilers before playing nine seasons with the Minnesota Wild and the St. Louis Blues. The Oilers have repatriated this summer via the market of autonomous players.
Drake Caggiula and Alex Chiasson have also moved the strings for the Oilers, who have won five of their last six games. McDavid and Jujhar Khaira, meanwhile, raised two assists each and Mikko Koskinen repelled 23 shots.
