Maple Leafs impressively beat Oilers but lose Samsonov in the process

Article content

Top to bottom, the Maple Leafs came to play on Saturday night.

Article content

That was a full team effort, the victory that the Leafs secured over the Edmonton Oilers by a tune of 6-3 at Scotiabank Arena.

Article content

The Leafs, though, didn’t end the game with goalie Ilya Samsonov in net. Samsonov was hurt when he stretched to try to stop Leon Draisaitl late in the third period. Draisaitl scored, and Samsonov departed the game in clear pain.

Martin Jones came on in relief with 3:39 to go and, despite not seeing any live game action since Feb. 22 at Las Vegas, stopped all five shots he faced.

Coach Sheldon Keefe had positive update on Samsonov after the game.

“Looks like he is going to be fine,” Keefe said. “He got injured … it’s not anything near what it appeared or what I thought it might have been. I’m not going to get into too many details, but it looks like he will be fine and won’t miss any time.”

Article content

Article content

The Oilers’ goals came in the third period after Toronto built a 5-0 lead, chasing goalie Stuart Skinner in the process, but the visitors were not given the opportunity to mount a true comeback.

As prolific as the Leafs were on offence through two periods, they were just as sound defensively at five-on-five.

Considering the talent on the other side, the victory was that much more impressive.

It was the Leafs’ last regular-season game against a Western Conference club, finishing with a glittering record of 24-6-2.

Our takeaways from the Leafs’ 19th home win of 2023-24:

DEPTH RULES

Never mind Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid: Leafs forwards Bobby McMann and Pontus Holmberg were stars on ice.

Both Leafs scored two goals, and it was a little more special for McMann, who was saying in the morning that he was big Oilers fan as a kid in Wainwright, Alta., and fondly remembered Edmonton’s 2006 Stanley Cup run.

Article content

A pair by Holmberg just over three minutes apart in the second period increased the Leafs’ lead to 4-0. McMann, who opened the scoring early in the first after some fine forechecking by John Tavares, also scored late in the second.

William Nylander mixed in a power-play goal late in the first period and also had a terrific assist on McMann’s second goal.

With Mitch Marner continuing to nurse a high ankle sprain, Matthews has not been filling the net as consistently as he would like.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with how the Leafs got their offence on Saturday. When players such as Holmberg and McMann produce against a top team such as Edmonton, Keefe will take that every day. And nothing like a confidence boost for those players either.

Article content

Good timing, too, as Tyler Bertuzzi was scratched because he was sick, joining Marner and Calle Jarnkrok on the sidelines.

Matthews scored into an empty Oilers net for his 58th of the season.

THE MATCH GAME

Not since December 2017, thanks to Curtis McElhinney, had the Leafs shut out the Oilers at home.

The Leafs were on their way to that rarity before Zach Hyman poked the puck past Ilya Samsonov at 4:59 of the third period on an Oilers power play. It was Hyman’s 49th goal of the season, continuing a career year for the former Leafs winger.

The Oilers added another power goal by Corey Perry at 8:32.

As sharp as Samsonov was, you could point anywhere at the Leafs lineup and find a player who properly did his part.

Matthews started the game against McDavid, but the assignment to put a lid on the game’s most dynamic player quickly went to Tavares. It worked, as McDavid was never able to get untracked and didn’t have a shot attempt, let alone a shot on goal, until the third period. McDavid did assist on both power-play goals .

Article content

As we were saying, though, a lot of Leafs did good things. Defenceman Timothy Liljegren had a pair of assists. Jake McCabe and Joel Edmundson hit just about everything in blue and orange. McCabe led the Leafs with seven hits, putting stock behind what Keefe said in the morning when the coach remarked that McCabe “arrives to the puck in a bad mood.”

On the whole, the Leafs had more energy, were hungrier and won puck battles.

A GREAT READ

Before he was hurt, Samsonov was on point for just about every Oilers shot, squaring himself to each attempt even at times when Draisaitl was able to unleash a few one-timers during Edmonton power plays.

The netminder was shaken up by a high Hyman shot with seven minutes to play in the third, but stayed in the game at that point.

Article content

Remember in the first few months of the regular season when Samsonov had trouble tracking the puck and often was caught out of his crease for easy goals by the opposition? Those days are gone.

The 27-year-old was sharp from the first shot he saw, a theme that has been continuous for several weeks now.

With the Stanley Cup playoffs now less than a month away, Keefe was saying in the morning that his plan is to split the remaining starts between Samsonov and Joseph Woll fairly equally.

“They will play about the same, whether it’s alternating, or two here, two there,” Keefe said.

Woll will get the start on Sunday when the Leafs play the Hurricanes in Carolina.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

Article content