*Photo from the Taiwan News*
Maybe the Toronto Maple Leafs just needed a spark from a fresh goaltender. Ilya Mikheyev scored, Ondrej Kase scored, and the Maple Leafs held off a late rally to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes with a 3-2 win on Thursday night in Toronto.
The Maple Leafs, wearing their green Toronto St Pats jerseys on St Patricks Day, got a little luck of the Irish to hold off the Hurricanes. They have started to heat up a little bit, improving to a 4-1-1 record in their last 6 games. They improve to 39-17-5 this season, hanging on to 3rd place in the Atlantic Division.
Rookie Erik Kallgren made his second straight start for the Maple Leafs, after posting a shutout on Tuesday night. Kallgren had another strong game, saving 34 of the 36 shots on goal the Hurricanes had, posting a .944 save percentage. His record improves to 2-0-0 in two starts and one relief outing on the season.
Kase said of Kallgren's game that "I know last game Kallgren had a shutout, but I think like this game he played unbelievable. I think this game was so much harder for him. It was physical. Carolina is a great team, and there's not so much space on the ice."
It was Mikheyev who started the scoring for Toronto, making it 1-0 at the 15:48 mark of the first period, his 12th goal of the season, assisted by Justin Holl. Mitch Marner scored his 24th goal of the season 4:39 into the second period, doubling the lead with assists from Timothy Liljegren and John Tavares.
In the 3rd period, Ethan Bear scored 4:39 into the period, getting the Hurricanes on the board and cutting the deficit to 2-1, his 4th goal of the season. Kase scored at the 7:20 mark of the 3rd to increase the lead to 3-1. Vincent Trocheck scored late to cut the deficit back to one, but they couldn't get any more.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of Kallgren that "There was that one big chance in the second where he kicked his leg out. Those are game-changing or saving type of saves. They make a major difference where they allow our team to find themselves and get going, so Kallgren was terrific."
Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen made his return to Toronto, getting the loss in his former home arena. Andersen stopped 18 of 21 shots from the Maple Leafs, good for a .857 save percentage. With the loss, Andersen's record drops to 30-9-2 this season.
Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour said after the game that "I thought we played hard. We always play hard, which is good, but we have to capitalize on our chances, which we didn't, and that magnifies the mistakes you make. You're going to make mistakes, but give them credit, they capitalized and obviously got the win out of it."
Up next, the Hurricanes finish a back to back on Friday night against the Washington Capitals, with Antti Raanta to get the start. The Maple Leafs head on the road to face the Nashville Predators on Saturday, with Petr Mrazek the likely starter.
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