The Toronto Maple Leafs earned a 4-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena, breaking the contest open with three goals in the second period. Toronto struck at even strength, on the power play, and while shorthanded to pull away from Montreal.
Conor Timmins opened the scoring for Toronto at 14:55 of the first period, recording his first goal of the season on a wrist shot with assists from Simon Benoit and Ryan Reaves. The Maple Leafs built on that lead early in the second frame when William Nylander tallied his 11th goal of the year on a power-play wrist shot at 5:39, assisted by Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly.
Toronto extended the margin to 3-0 at 8:24 of the second period as Mitch Marner scored a shorthanded goal off an assist from David Kampf. Brendan Gallagher answered for Montreal at 9:26 on a power play, batting the puck past the goaltender after setups from Emil Heineman and Lane Hutson. Less than three minutes later, John Tavares reestablished Toronto's three-goal cushion by scoring on a power play at 12:15, assisted by Marner and Nylander.
Special teams shaped the outcome as Toronto finished 2-for-4 on the power play and added a shorthanded tally, while Montreal converted on one of its two power-play opportunities. Joseph Woll stopped 20 of 21 shots to earn the win for the Maple Leafs. At the other end, Sam Montembeault made 23 saves on 27 shots in the loss for Montreal.
With the win, Toronto improved its regular-season record to 9-5-2 and stretched its winning streak to three games. Montreal fell to 4-9-2 on the season, extending a winless streak to six consecutive games (0-5-1). The result evened the season series between the rivals at one win apiece.
