The Toronto Maple Leafs kicked off a four-game Pacific Division road trip in Edmonton to Play the Oilers at Rogers Place. This was a highly-anticipated contest featuring Connor McDavid against Auston Matthews. The Maple Leafs dominated the opening 20 minutes with three goals in a six-minute span and eventually held on for the 4-3 victory despite a valiant comeback attempt from the home squad. Here’s your game recap.
Game Recap
Toronto opened the scoring 6:32 into the first period. An Oilers turnover in the defensive zone led to John Tavares setting up William Nylander, who ripped a shot upstairs past goaltender Stuart Skinner for his 30th goal of the season. Then, the Leafs made it 2-0 on the power play. Matthews took a wrister from the right faceoff dot, and Matthew Knies pounced on the rebound and buried it for his 19th goal of the season.
This first period was all Toronto as they added another power-play marker courtesy of Bobby McMann’s 15th of the season. He found the loose puck from a long-distance wrister and went backhand past the Oilers’ netminder 12:50 into the opening frame.
Evan Bouchard gave Edmonton some life 11:27 into the middle frame. His slap shot was hammered blocker side and past goaltender Joseph Woll for his ninth goal of the season. Edmonton outshot Toronto 18-5 in the middle frame, but the Maple Leafs took a 3-1 lead into the dressing room.
Related: Projected Lineups for the Maple Leafs vs Oilers – 2/1/25
The Maple Leafs seemingly put this game away just 18 seconds into the final period. Mitch Marner deked around the entire Oilers team like they were pylons and scored for his 16th goal of the season.
However, Zach Hyman answered back for his 18th goal of the season 6:04 into the final frame. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins found Hyman off the rush, and he took the puck to the net and finished blocker side to cut the lead in half. Then, Corey Perry made it a 4-3 game for his 10th of the season. Off the cycle, he just fired the puck on net from near the blue line, and it found a way past Woll.
The Oilers thought they tied the game with two minutes remaining, but the play was deemed offside upon video review, which kept Toronto in the lead. The Oilers kept pushing, but it was not enough as Toronto held on for the 4-3 victory. Skinner was shaky in this one, allowing four goals on 28 shots for an .857 save percentage (SV%). Woll…
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