*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
St. Patrick's day in Toronto didn't disappoint for the fans in the building. Zach Aston-Reese scored twice, Calle Jarnkrok had two assists, and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Carolina Hurricanes with a 5-2 victory on Friday night in Toronto.
Wearing their Toronto St. Pats jerseys, the Maple Leafs improved to 4-2-1 in their last 7 games and 6-3-1 in their last 10 games. Jarnkrok and John Tavares each had two assists and Aston-Reese had two goals, the first time he's scored even one goal since October of 2019 with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Aston-Reese said of his two goal game that "It's always easy to play the rest of the game when you score on your first shift. They were pretty easy goals for me to put in. Gustafsson with a great shot, a great move by him too with that little shimmy at the top to get free, and then Lafferty with a great sauce pass. I was hoping for the third but I'm happy with the night."
It was Aston-Reese who got the Maple Leafs started, giving them a 1-0 lead 2:54 into the game, assisted by Jarnkrok and Erik Gustafsson. Mitch Marner scored 12:30 into the game to double the lead to 2-0. Brady Skjei got the Hurricanes on the board with his 14th goal of the season before Auston Matthews scored on the power play to make it 3-1 Maple Leafs.
Martin Necas started the scoring in the second period, cutting the Carolina deficit to 3-2 with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Teuvo Teravainen assisting. Sam Lafferty then assisted on Aston-Reese's second goal of the night, making it 4-2 after two periods. Morgan Rielly scored 8:56 into the 3rd period to make it a 5-2 score.
After the game, Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of the win that "For the most part, I thought we did a really good job defensively and I thought we moved the puck really well coming out of our end tonight, which has been an issue for us in recent games. And tonight we are playing against a team that's maybe the hardest in the League to come out of your zone against."
Getting the start and putting together a strong game between the pipes was Ilya Samsonov for the Maple Leafs, improving to 24-8-3 with the win. Samsonov stopped 32 of 34 shots he saw from Carolina, good for a .941 save percentage.
It was Pyotr Kochetkov in net for the Hurricanes, taking the loss after being outplayed by Samsonov. Kochetkov turned away 19 out of the 24 shots on goal the Maple Leafs had, recording a .792 save percentage. His record is now 11-6-5 in 22 games this season.
Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook said of the loss that "A team with that skill level, you just can't be giving them chances, and we gave them, I feel like every chance we gave them, it was a Grade A chance that ended up in the back of our net. You've got to be able to stick with your game plan and just stay tight, stay above people, don't let their skilled guys get behind you, and we let that happen too many times tonight."
Both teams are on the road on Saturday as they finish the second half of back to backs. Matt Murray is the projected starter for the Maple Leafs as they face the Ottawa Senators, while Frederik Andersen is expected to start as the Hurricanes take on the Philadelphia Flyers.
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