Back to 11/7 tonight with Mateychuk still ill and Sillinger ruled out with an upper body injury.
First Period
The game gets underway and ninety seconds in Olivier and Reaves squared off. If this bout had been billed as a clash of two heavyweights, it would have lived up to it. A great showing from both. Voronkov took the first minor of the game early when he held Marner trying to force a neutral zone turnover. Good PK, no real chances for Toronto.
Interesting sequence midway through when Elvis and Matthews switched sticks mid play. A minor penalty awarded to both. The 4 on 4 was almost all Toronto and Elvis made some huge saves including a Nylander breakaway. Another power play for Toronto fourteen minutes in when Werenski attempted to stop Matthews from charging through the neutral zone but ended up tripping him. After a shaky start to the PK they settled in nicely before Provorov won a race to a loose puck and made a good play to find a streaking Fantilli for a partial breakaway. He ripped his shot past Hildeby for his first shorthanded goal with two seconds left on the Z penalty.
CBJ SH Goal 1-0: Fantilli (Provorov) 15:40
18 total minutes of penalty time in the first, all situations stats feel like a better choice to recap the period. Per NST, Toronto led in shots 13-8, scoring chances 13-9, and xG 1.36-1.27.
Second Period
Strong start to the period from Toronto including a long shift in the offensive zone after Christiansen lost his stick. Elvis continued to be up to the challenge but a loose rebound forced Kuraly to take a penalty to keep the puck out of the net about five minutes in. Another really solid penalty kill kept the lead early in this period. The Leafs continued to dominate possession of the puck with long shift after long shift in the offensive zone requiring Elvis to constantly make great saves. Finally the Jackets got a clear after one of those long shifts and turned it into offense with a nice play from Severson off the wall to get The Initials Line going. KJ to LDBB cross slot to JVR for the one timer.
CBJ Goal 2-0: JVR (LDBB, KJ) 13:40
Under 2 minutes later a nice shift from the top line ends when Fantilli tips his own rebound back into the slot where Voronkov did his thing to get it back to Fantilli for his second of the night.
CBJ Goal 3-0: Fantilli (Voronkov, Werenski) 15:21
Per NST in this period at 5v5 the Leafs led in shots 8-5, scoring chances 10-6, but not in xG 0.79-0.9 showing the quality of those Jackets chances.
Third Period
Toronto certainly with a lot of jump at the beginning of this period, noting that Matthew Knies suffered an upper body injury and Nylander joined the top line of Matthews and Marner. After some long shifts in the defensive zone, LDBB won a race to the puck behind the Toronto goal, the Leafs D recovered the puck but forced an ill advised pass behind the net. Some nice stick handling from Luca led to his second of the night.
CBJ Goal 4-0: LDBB (Unassisted) 5:56
A stretch pass from Marner hit Nylander behind the defense again, and although he skated by Elvis to create an open net, he couldn’t solve the post. On his next shift Nylander displayed his skill to get free from a defending LDBB and hit Matthews on the doorstop to end Elvis’ shutout bid,
TOR Goal 4-1: Matthews (Nylander, Oliver Ekman-Larsson) 9:22
Another 2 minutes of 4v4 action with 8 minutes left started with a Marchenko steal to create a 2 on 1 ending with a nice save from Hildeby. That play was followed up with the Leafs pulling their goalie to create a 5 on 4 that didn’t last long. Marchenko again got the puck in the neutral zone on a rush and was joined by Fantilli who cashed in for his first career hat trick.
CBJ EN Hat Trick Goal 5-1: Fantilli (Marchenko, Fabbro) 12:02
Columbus was largely able to coast the last eight minutes without concern and brought home the 4 goal win.
3rd period stats at 5v5 per NST, Leafs with the edge in shots 6-5, scoring chances 5-13, and xG 1.0-.068.
Final Thoughts
Perfect shorthanded road game against a top opponent. Normally this Jackets team is fun to watch terrorize their opponents with constant pressure and non-stop offense, but that was not going to be in the cards tonight with the late scratches on top of the already long injury list. Toronto consistently out possessed the Jackets early but they limited the quality of the chances against on the PK and Elvis was terrific when he needed to be otherwise. When their rush opportunities came they were quick and decisive and took advantage of a non-excellent back up goaltender.
Congratulations to Adam Fantilli on his first NHL Hat trick, thrilled he could do it in front of family and friends. Second congrats to LDBB for getting two goals in his homecoming. As expected the top two lines had to do most of the work tonight and they generated enough offense in their limited chances to come out on top. Marchenko had another excellent game turning the puck over and carrying it through the zone.
The defense struggled to prevent rush chances against but they also deserve credit for blocking shots (especially on the PK) and getting the puck up cleanly for rush breakouts when they got their chances to.
Fantilli got the hat trick, but Elvis was the real star of this game with over 3 goals saved over expected per Evolving Hockey. It was a combination of saves on breakaways, net front scrambles, and open slot shots especially against William Nylander, a quality shooter.
With the Jackets looking to stay in the wild card hunt, they need to get the occasional win against the top dogs and need to take advantage of back up goalies when they see them like they did tonight. Back into the Wild Card by points, but not pts% after this one.
Final tally per NST at all situations, Toronto with the edge in Shots 30-19, Scoring chances 39-22, but not xG 3.49-3.6 and actual goals 1-5.
Up Next
The Blue Jackets travel to Raleigh tonight to faceoff against the Hurricanes tomorrow at 7 PM EST.