The Pittsburgh Penguins trailed 2-1 after one period and ultimately beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
In the final moments of the second period, defenseman Erik Karlsson scored the winning goal with a powerful slap shot from the line. Despite a lot of traffic in front of Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll’s goal, the puck made its way between players before ending its run to the right of the final city.
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Woll made 32 saves, while his opponent Tristan Jarry saved 34 of the 36 pucks aimed at him.
Things started well for the Leafs as they had the advantage twice in the game thanks to goals from Tyler Bertuzzi and Matthew Knies. Jake Guentzel responded to the Toronto club’s first goal just 28 seconds after the opening score.
Former Maple Leafs Noel Acciari was the other Penguins player to get the red light.
Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews also didn’t really listen to their head coach Sheldon Keefe, who simply demanded that they get better since they couldn’t be decisive in the game.
It was the second time in as many games that the Leafs had a lead before going down and losing the game.
Toronto faces the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. The Penguins travel to Nashville on the same day to face the Predators.
A return for Nico Hischier
After a hugely disappointing loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, the New Jersey Devils exploded offensively and won 7-2 over the Buffalo Sabres.
Let’s assume that the return of captain Nico Hischier to the Newark team did a lot of good. The Swiss, who missed eleven games, scored one goal and one assist.
The game was decided in the first third as Lindy Ruff’s men scored four times thanks to Alexander Holtz, Tyler Toffoli, Hischier and Ondrej Palat.
Jeff Skinner gave his team hope by scoring a power play goal early in the second period, but Toffoli gave his team a four-goal lead less than a minute later.
Dawson Mercer and Luke Hughes were the Devils’ other scorers. For the Sabres, Kyle Okposo caused a stir for the second time in a row.
A defensive duel in Elmont
The New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers gave us a defensive duel as no goals were scored after 65 minutes of play. Ultimately it was the Flyers who were able to win 1-0 thanks to shots from Dam.
It was young Tyson Foerster who gave Philadelphia the win, thanks to a wrist shot that beat Ilya Sorokin on the glove side. Seven different shooters faced the goaltenders before the forward put the puck into Sorokin’s goal.
The “Isles” goalkeeper was particularly efficient with 40 saves. Samuel Ersson, the masked man on the Flyers’ side, stopped all 24 shots he faced.