Maple Leafs get there revenge shut out Blue Jackets 3-0
BY ANDREW GUARINO
HOCKEY WRITER
(TORONTO, CANADA) - The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Columbus Bluejackets 3-0 Tuesday afternoon from the Scotibank center in Toronto Canada. Joonas Korpisalo was once again fantastic but a lack of offense damaged his effort.
The first period was relatively quiet between the two teams. It was a bit scary for the Blue Jackets as two defenseman got a bit shaken up as Zach Werenski got his hand tapped up on the bench and Dean Kukan went down the tunnel after taking a huge hit from Kyle Clifford, although he returns a few shifts later. The real story of the first period was the solid play of Joonas Korpisalo who saw a total of 15 shots and stopped all of them.
The second period was a special team heavy period as the two teams combined for five minor penalties. It also saw the game's first goal in favor of the Maple Leafs. Zach Hyman was skating down into the Blue Jackets territory; when he reached the left faceoff dot, he passed to Auston Matthews, who was on the opposite side of the faceoff dot. Matthews deflected the pass from Hyman into the back of the net. This ended Joonas Korpisalo's shutout streak at 96 minutes. The Blue Jackets seemed to struggle this period to get anything going.
The penalty trend for the Blue Jackets continued at the beginning of the third as just 53 seconds in, Nick Foligno took a slashing minor, but the Blue Jackets were able to kill the penalty. At 4:56, the Maple Leafs extended their lead to 2-0. Travis Dermott passed out of the Maple Leafs' zone up to John Tavares who was waiting at his own blue line; he went on a break away and beat Korpisalo's five-hole. With less than two minutes to go and Columbus on the power play, a scary situation unfolded. While in a battle for the puck along the boards, Jake Muzzin took a shove from Pierre-Luc Dubois - not a vicious shove and not a illegal shove - but enough to fall on Oliver Bjorkstrand's leg. Muzzin attempted to get back up, but went back down on his legs, and he stayed on the ice where he remained for roughly 10-15 minutes while trainers and doctors talked to him and worked with him until he was taken out on a stretcher. He received a lot of stick taps from both teams. With 42 seconds left in the game, the Maple Leafs made it 3-0 on an empty net goal. Morgan Rielly got the empty net goal, sending the puck from right in front of his own net to the other end of the ice into the Blue Jacket net.
The Blue Jackets started Joonas Korpisalo, who stopped 36/38 shots faced. The Maple Leafs countered with Frederik Andersen who stopped all 20 shots he faced. The third star went to John Tavares with a goal, the second star to Zach Hyman with an assist, and the first star to Auston Matthews with a goal and an assist.
Looking back at keys to the game: First, to play a repeat of Sunday night game. This didn't even come come remotely close to happening as the Blue Jackets struggled in almost every aspect during game. They looked slow and uninterested and the only one that seemed to care was Korpisalo. Second, keep up the physical play. This really didn't happen on either side. The Maple Leafs played a tad bit more physical than they did Sunday and it seemed to throw Columbus off their game. Third, play solid defense in front of Korpisalo. This is one thing they did do; however, they spent entirely too much time at their end of the ice playing in front of Korpisalo - it's hard to win games that way and they were outshot 39 to 20.
Game three of the series is set for Thursday, August 6th, at 8pm from Toronto. Keys to the game: 1) get the offense rolling again; 2) stop with the penalties - the Blue Jackets had six minor penalties which really disrupted their game; and 3) Korpisalo needs to continue the solid goal keeping.
POSTED 08/04/2020 23:06
Lake County Sentinel
