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The Toronto Maple Leafs played what you would think was a low event game if you looked at the final score, but it was not low event for goalie Ilya Samsonov, who played his best game of the season in a Leafs 1-0 overtime victory over the Winnipeg Jets at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
Auston Matthews scored his lead-leading 39th goal with 46 seconds left in the extra frame to give Toronto their 24th victory of the season, and Samsonov made 32 saves for his second shutout of the season.
The Jets were short-handed, playing without center Mark Scheifele and forward Gabriel Vilardi, and lost defenseman Josh Morrissey in the first period, but that did not stop the defensively proficient Jets from frustrating Toronto five-on-five and with the man advantage, shutting down the Leafs power play on five occasions.
Winnipeg went with backup Laurent Brossoit and the Jets goalie did not get tested with many high-danger scoring chances, while Samsonov was the much busier and made a number of excellent stops, including a pair of saves on the Jets short-handed 2-on-0 break, and during a pair of man advantages late in regulation and into overtime.
“He was excellent from start to finish. He was good early in the game when they were shooting the puck from everywhere on the sides. He was great there. He was obviously great on the few high-end chances that they had. It is just another building block for him. He looks as confident as ever.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “He put in the work. Virtually everyone, I am sure, had counted him out and written him off. Even internally, there are questions, right? ‘How is he going to be able to bounce back here?’ Credit to him for staying with it. Credit to all of the people and resources around him to help support him. (GM Brad Treliving) put together a plan for him on how they were going to manage his time away from our team. Credit to Curtis Sanford.”
Keefe critiqued the club after the game, saying that the Leafs looked like they were in a West Coast coma after their four-game road swing, but said that the important thing was the club getting a valuable two points against a tough opponent. After Samsonov, the Leafs best performer appeared to be Nick Robertson, who was elevated from the third line into the top six with John Tavares and William Nylander in the second period.
Robertson, who scored a goal in the win over Seattle, played a season-high 17:08, had four shots on goal, and assisted on Matthews game-winner. With the musical chairs going on at left wing on the top two lines, Keefe has to keep feeding the 22-year-old ice time and offensive opportunities to take advantage of his big shot and his creativity going forward.
The Leafs finish off the pre-All-Star part of their schedule with a rematch with the Jets in Winnipeg on Saturday.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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