After a nameless goaltender frustrates the Maple Leafs…
Lukas Dostal, the 23-year-old back-up for the downtrodden Ducks, made a career and franchise high 55 saves at the Honda Center before Auston Matthews scored his NHL high 30th goal, his first game winner of the season, on his 13th shot with seven more attempts.
“It was a little bit (shocking),” Matthews told the media in Anaheim of Dostal’s dominance. “You try and think ‘next one’s going in, next one’s going in’, but he played a hell of a game and you have to tip your hat to him.
“I’m proud of everyone not getting discouraged.”
The Leafs almost saw their three-year streak of not being shut out come to an ignominious end, salvaged by John Tavares’s power-play goal with 5:47 to go in regulation. That was their 50th shot on Dostal and their fifth power play, a Morgan Rielly drive off the post to Tavares’s stick.
The Leafs won back-to-back on the California road trip and for the first time in nearly a month.
Martin Jones, the right choice to start after blanking Los Angeles, held his team in again with 27 saves and has stopped 58 of 60, counting the Kings, while 22-year-old rookie Hildeby watched a second game from the bench as Ilya Samsonov remains at home.
With the Leafs’ record below .500 against the bottom seven NHL clubs, few could argue with the call to trot out Jones again instead of letting Hildeby see live fire in The Show.
Jones is no stranger to a heavy workload or the nuances of Honda from his Pacific Division days in L.A. and San Jose, the latter where he likely plays the trip’s conclusion Saturday. These points are too vital with the standings much closer for Toronto than the past few seasons when they pulled away from the pack in the second half.
“It’s hard for us to have that conversation on one end and go with the goalie who has never played in the league, when you’ve got another guy coming off a shutout,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I liked we stayed with it and were rewarded.
“Auston was bound to get one. We’ve been playing a much better team game of late, but within that you need difference makers to step up.”
Matthews had no goals or points the previous three games after a hot December. Ditto luck for linemate Mitch Marner, held to just four points his past eight until a nice helper on Wednesday’s winner. William Nylander also assisted on the Tavares goal, improving his team-best points to 51.
“It’s the way it goes over 82 games, you see a hot goaltender,” Tavares said of the result. “(But) Auston is due every night with the amount of looks he gets. “That’s his 30th (the most in 35 games by a Leaf since Frank Mahovlich in 1960-61) an incredible start to the season.”
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