“Something the coaching staff talks about a lot is just grinding games out, being very comfortable in these types of games and these situations,” Tavares mentioned. “Stay patient and earn your opportunities. Being able to grab the lead was really huge, especially going into the third. Not sitting back but we were definitely making sure they had to come through all five of us, have to play 200-foot and use a lot of energy to get up and down the ice.”
Mitch Marner scored and had an help to increase his level streak to seven video games, Morgan Rielly had two assists and Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves for the Maple Leafs (8-5-2), who’ve received two in a row.
“[Mitch] does a lot for us, defensively and penalty killing he’s been excellent,” Toronto coach Craig Berube mentioned. “He’s a guy that reads the play really well, anticipates, breaks plays up with his stick. There’s a lot of good there with him [lately] all around.”
Dylan Larkin scored, and Cam Talbot made 17 saves for the Crimson Wings (6-6-1), who had received their earlier two.
“It was probably a low-event type game,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde mentioned. “Not many chances given up. We were unable to execute in some situations. It’s going to be a frustrating result in the fact, you know, you don’t give a 5-on-5 goal, you don’t execute in some situations.”
“There’s a missed opportunity. This was an opportunity to take some points here in a tough building, and we were unable to execute in some situations.”
Tavares put the Maple Leafs up 2-1 at 11:01 of the second interval on the ability play. After Marner’s preliminary go was disrupted by J.T. Compher, Tavares acquired to the unfastened puck within the slot, turned and shot over Talbot’s glove.
