The Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens renewed their historic rivalry, as rookies Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner got their first taste of playing on a Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
The Habs entered the game as the hottest team in the NHL and continued their early season success with a 2-1 victory over the Leafs. Alex Galchenyuk and Shea Weber scored for Montreal and Carey Price made 37 saves for win.
Nazem Kadri tallied for Toronto and Frederik Andersen made 29 stops in his second straight strong effort, but the Leafs continued their lack of success on the road, as the club is 0-2-3 away from Air Canada Center this season.
After a scoreless first, Montreal took the lead in the second after Morgan Rielly’s neutral zone miscue led to an Alex Radulov offensive foray, who then dished to a trailing Galchenyuk, who caught the Leafs defense and Andersen out of position.
Toronto tied the game with the man advantage early in the third, as William Nylander’s hard pass was redirected by Kadri past Price.
"I thought Willie was outstanding tonight. When Willie is competitive and wants the puck like he did tonight, he's hard to handle." Leafs coach Mike Babcock said after the game.
Toronto nearly took the lead moments later, but Price stymied Connor Carrick with a miraculous glove save on a shot that appeared labeled for the top corner.
After coincidental minors to Kadri and Torrey Mitchell for slashing, Carrick took a hooking penalty that gave the Canadiens a four-on-three power play. Weber’s slap shot beat the glove hand of Leafs goaltender just inside the post.
"I thought both goaltenders were good. I (didn't) like the four-on-three goal; I think that's on the coaches. Our plan wasn't good enough, we shouldn't let (Weber) hammer away (from) there." Babcock said. "We had good chances, Carey (Price) made some good saves and I thought our goalie made some good saves."
Toronto will take on the New York Islanders in Brooklyn on Sunday.
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The Toronto Marlies earned three of a possible four points in back-to-back weekend road games against the Albany Devils.
On Friday, the Marlies extended their winning streak to four games with a 3-0 victory over the Devils, as Colin Greening, Tobias Lindberg and rookie Trevor Moore scored goals and Antoine Bibeau made 37 saves for his second shutout of the season.
Toronto led 3-1 entering the third period of Saturday’s afternoon contest on goals from Moore, Byron Froese and Andrew Nielsen, but John Quenneville and Ben Sexton forced overtime and Quenneville tallied the lone goal in the shootout to give Albany a 4-3 victory.
Moore, the University of Denver product who was signed as a free agent over the summer, scored his second goal in as many games after going scoreless in his first five AHL games.
Nielsen registered two points on Saturday, giving the 19-year-old rookie seven points in eight games, tying the Leafs 2015 third round pick for second in AHL defensive scoring (with Utica’s Jordan Subban) and one point behind Texas blueliner Julius Honka.
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