KOSHAN: Matthews scores in return, Nylander records three points as Maple Leafs crush Blackhawks

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Well, that was easy. 

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It’s the way it should be when the Maple Leafs play one of the bottom-feeders in the National Hockey League.

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Of course, we know it doesn’t always work out that way with the Leafs, who have had trouble getting poor efforts against bad teams out of their system.

Not so on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena. 

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The Leafs beat up on former teammate Petr Mrazek and the Chicago Blackhawks, running the Original Six visitors out of the building with a 5-2 victory.

Auston Matthews scored in his return after missing five games with a sprained knee and William Nylander paced the Leafs with three points, the sixth time in 2022-23 that Nylander has had at least three points in a game.

In the wider view, it was the kind of response the Leafs had to have after they lost against the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. There was no excuse for that loss, but the Leafs didn’t have to make any on Wednesday. 

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“We just have to learn that nothing is taken for granted in this league,” defenceman Rasmus Sandin said in the morning. “All the teams are really good, even if they are not high up in the standings. It’s still the NHL. We have to find a way to come up in the level we want to play because we’re playing for something big here. We need to learn that, for sure.”

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The Leafs will get a couple more chances this weekend when they play host to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday and visit the Blackhawks on Sunday.

Toronto didn’t play a perfect hockey game by any means, but the Blackhawks, who are one point ahead of the Blue Jackets in the overall NHL standings, didn’t put up much of a fight. After getting shut out in Montreal on Tuesday, Chicago fell to 0-8-1 in the second game of back-to-back sets. 

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Another difference: Mrazek, who carried an .885 save percentage into the game, is not a good goaltender and the Leafs’ Ilya Samsonov is. The latter finished with 27 saves to improve to 16-2-1 at home.

The Leafs moved two points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning and back into second place in the Atlantic Division at the game’s end. However, the Lightning played later on Wednesday in Arizona against the Coyotes. 

After Philipp Kurashev deposited a Max Domi pass behind Samsonov in the first minute of the second period to cut the Leafs’ lead to one goal, Toronto scored two in the period to take a three-goal advantage into to the third. 

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Captain John Tavares scored on a pass from Alex Kerfoot at 7:37, and Conor Timmins, playing in place of the benched Justin Holl, hammered a shot past Mrazek at 16:07.

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Plenty was being made on social about the possibility of a revenge game on the part of Mrazek, not that there was any chance of that actually happening.

The Leafs got to their old pal early when Nylander scored at nine seconds, just two seconds off Toronto franchise record for fastest goal from the start of a game, to start the Leafs on a path to a 3-1 lead by the end of the first period.

Nylander was sprung by Morgan Rielly, sprinted past a falling Jake McCabe inside the Chicago blue line and moved to his forehand to score on a deke for his 30th goal.

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The Leafs record is seven seconds, set by Charlie Conacher in 1932 and tied by Marner in 2019. 

The Blackhawks’ Sam Lafferty got that back some 53 seconds later when he intercepted a Calle Jarnkrok pass in the Leafs’ end and beat Samsonov with a backhand deke. 

The Leafs didn’t flinch. Sandin scored at 8:14 when his shot accidentally was re-directed between the legs of Mrazek by Chicago defenceman Connor Murphy. 

Toronto figured it had a 3-1 lead 15 seconds later when Kerfoot snapped a shot past Mrazek after Mitch Marner set him up. But Hawks coach Luke Richardson challenged for offside and was proven correct during a review.

The Leafs got their two-goal bulge a few minutes later. Nylander controlled the puck, danced along the blue line to stay onside and fed Matthews, who went to his patented forehand to fire the puck into the top corner over Mrazek’s right shoulder at 11:21. 

tkoshan@postmedia.com

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