Coming in as an injured, beaten up team, many expected the Toronto Maple Leafs to just roll over to the Canucks.
Well they didn’t, and they absolutely crushed the Canucks 5-2 in front of their home crowd Saturday on a night where they rocked their retro jerseys.
Offensively, Toronto was led by Mark Arcobello was scored his first two goals of the season 17 seconds apart, and Brendan Leipsic who ended up scoring what would be the game-winning goal.
“Whenever you get an opportunity to play in the NHL, you’ve got to take advantage of it,” said Arcobello, who was playing his third game since his latest recall from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League and 14th this season for the Maple Leafs. “I was lucky enough tonight to get a couple goals and hopefully I can build off it.”
Leipsic was called up with the Marlies who were on the road, but was able to make it for the game. Having failed on an earlier attempt, he batted a loose puck out of the air past Ryan Miller 3:54 into the third period to make it 3-1.
The game saw no goals in the first period but the Canuck struck first when Daniel Sedin scored at the 3:18 mark of the second period beating James Reimer (17 saves) who had a relatively quiet night.
Arcobello would tie it up just 69 seconds later after a Vancouver turnover, beating a screened Miller from the top of the faceoff circle.
Just 17 seconds later Arcobello gave the Leafs a 2-1 lead after having the puck bounce off defensemen Jake Gardiner and right to him in the front of the net for a tap in.
“It’s funny how it goes sometimes,” Arcobello said. “Jake made a great play on the second one. It was easy for me to just bang it in the open net.”
After Leipsic made it 3-1 in the third, the Canucks cut into the lead with Sven Baertschi’s 11th of the year.
With Miller on the bench for an extra attacker in the third period, Beartschi was able to net the games 5th goal to make it a 1 goal game at 18:13.
However that’s as close as the Canucks would get.
Brad Boyes and Leo Komarov scored into an empty net in the final minute which put a cap on a very successful road victory.
In the loss Ryan Miller made 33 saves, and the Canucks fell to 22-21-12 on the year.
For the game the Canucks were outshot badly 38-19 which has been a problem all season long.
“Our game plan was to get after their back end and get pucks deep, work them low,” said Maple Leafs defenseman Frank Corrado. “We talked about foot on the gas pedal, keep going, stay on top of them, get pucks deep and that was our mindset here. Keep coming after them.”
Up next: The Canucks face-off against the Minnesota Wild Monday night in Vancouver.
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