GAME-DAY RESOURCES Game Notes NHL Stats Press Clips LAST GAME Friday, November 29 Toronto 4 at Buffalo 6 Goals: Eichel (2), Skinner, Mittelstadt, Olofsson, Vesey Goalie: Ullmark (25 saves/29 shots) PP: 0/2; PK: 4/4; Shots: Buffalo 36 – Toronto 29 CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 122) Player (injury, first game missed) – total games […]

Game Preview: 11/30/19 at Toronto — Buffalo Sabres Digital Press Box

TORONTO MARLIES (14-2-2-1 – 31 Points) vs. ROCHESTER AMERICANS (12-3-2-2 – 28 Points)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2019

1 2 3 OT FINAL
TORONTO 0 1 1 1 3


ROCHESTER 1 1 0 0 2

GAME SUMMARY | GAME SHEET | PHOTOS | SCRUMS
SCORING SUMMARY

Toronto: T. MacMaster (5) (P. Aberg, E. Korshkov), D. Archibald (4) PP (T. Kivihalme, P. Aberg), P. Aberg (10) (J. Schmaltz, K. Agostino)
Goaltender: K. Kaskisuo (33/35)

Rochester: B. Murray (3) (K. Porter, A. Oglevie), S. Wilson (6) (Z. Redmond, S. Malone)
Goaltender: A. Hammond (28/31)

ON THE SCORESHEET

Tanner MacMaster scored Toronto’s first goal at 13:18 of the second period. MacMaster has picked up a point (3-4-6) in each of his last seven games.

Darren Archibald scored Toronto’s second goal at 8:43 of the third period. This was Archibald’s 100th career AHL goal. Archibald has five points (4 goals, 1 assist) through 12 games this season.

Pontus Aberg scored at 1:36 of overtime. He earlier recorded the primary assist on MacMaster’s second period goal and the secondary assist on Archibald’s second period goal. Aberg has points (3-7-10) through seven games. This is his seventh multi-point game of the season.

Egor Korshkov registered the secondary assist on MacMaster’s second period goal. Korshkov has 13 points (8 goals, 5 assists) through 19 games.

Teemu Kivihalme recorded the primary assist on Archibald’s third period goal. He has points (1-2-3) three consecutive games. Kivihalme has five points (1 goal, 4 assists) through 17 games this season.

Jordan Schmaltz collected the primary assist on Aberg’s overtime goal.
Kenny Agostino picked up the secondary assist on Aberg’s overtime goal. Agostino has 10 points (6 goals, 4 assists) in seven games. He scored Toronto’s first overtime winning goal of the season on November 20 against Laval.
Kasimir Kaskisuo stopped 33 of 35 shots he faced. Kaskisuo is now 7-1-1-0 on the season with a .930 Save Percentage and a 2.11 Goals Against Average. This is Kaskisuo’s first overtime win of the season.
OF NOTE…
Assistant coaches Rob Davison and A.J. MacLean assumed duties behind the bench for tonight’s game against the Rochester Americans. Toronto is 4-0-0-0 under Davison and MacLean.
Toronto was 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and was 1-for-4 on the power play.
Rochester had a 35-31 edge in shots in all situations. Pontus Aberg, Darren Archibald and Adam Brooks led the Marlies with five shots on goal.
The Marlies are 6-0-2-1 against North Division opponents and are 1-0-0-0 against the Rochester Americans.

REGULAR SEASON LEADERS
Goals: P. Aberg, K. Agostino (10)
Assists: J. Bracco (13)
Points: P. Aberg (22)
PPG: E. Korshkov (4)
Shots: P. Aberg (62)
+/-: P. Aberg (+11)
PIMS: G. Wilson (43)
RECORD WHEN…
The Marlies are 4-0-1-0 when trailing after the first period and 1-1-2-0 when trailing after the second period.
Toronto is 8-2-1-1 when outshot by their opponent.
The Marlies are 3-1-0-0 in Friday games and are 8-2-0-1 in November.
CURRENT POINT STREAKS
Pontus Aberg has points (2-4-6) in three consecutive games.
Kenny Agostino has points (2-3-5) in three consecutive games.
Darren Archibald has points (2-1-3) three consecutive games.
Teemu Kivihalme has points (1-2-3) in three consecutive games.
Tanner MacMaster has points (3-4-7) in seven consecutive games.
MARLIES UPDATES.
Kevin Gravel (illness) did not dress for tonight’s game against Rochester.
RECENT TRANSACTIONS
November 29: Loaned defenceman Martin Marincin from Toronto (NHL).
November 28: Recalled forward Matt Bradley from loan to Newfoundland (ECHL).
November 28: Reassigned defenceman Joseph Duszak by Toronto (NHL) from Newfoundland (ECHL).
November 28: Reassigned forward Aaron Luchuk by Toronto (NHL) from Newfoundland (ECHL).
POSTGAME QUOTES
ASSISTANT COACH A.J. MacLEAN
On whether the first two periods was what he expected out of both teams:
More so them, we knew they were going to forecheck and work very hard, given their lineup and they definitely did that. They stuck to their game plan well but I thought our guys did a good job, as the game went on we got a little bit more comfortable and then we got to our structure and game plan. The third period was more of what I would have liked to see the whole game.
On the explanation from officials on Archibald’s delayed goal call:
There wasn’t much of one. (The official) just came over and said it happened so quick, he just wasn’t sure if it went in or not and they were going to review it anyways and when they did, they got the call right which is great.
On the team regaining focus for their early afternoon game tomorrow:
I wouldn’t forget about it. You take your lessons every game. We want to build off our third period and learn what worked for us and what didn’t in the first couple of periods and that’s what we’re going to do and get on the bus and get out of here.

On Pontus Aberg’s three-point night:
He’s always dangerous, always dangerous. When he gets a puck in a good area, he can really shoot, he can make a play. He got a few tonight and he made do with an assist in the second period and he got his luck tonight and he beared down and ripped it.

NEXT GAME:

November 30 vs Utica – 1:30 p.m. ET (Scotiabank Arena)
December 1 vs Utica – 4:00 p.m. ET
December 4 at Rochester – 7:05 p.m. ET
December 7 vs San Antonio – 4:00 p.m. ET
December 8 vs San Antonio – 4:00 p.m. ET

ORLANDO — On a night when it looked like none of the Raptors would find their stroke, Norm Powell found his in the third quarter and the Raptors rode it to a sixth consecutive win. Powell, whose previous career high for points in a game was 30, had 19 in the third quarter alone as . …

Powell leads the way as Raptors overcome Magic in Orlando — Toronto Sun

Post-Game Report: 11/29 vs. Toronto

Posted on November 29, 2019 by Ian Ott | Leave a comment

Final Score

Game Summary

Event Summary

Top Notes

• Buffalo has not lost the home portion of a home-and-home series with Toronto since the first such series (a 4-2 loss on Dec. 20, 1970).
• The Sabres are now 11-1-2 (two ties) all-time in the home portion of their 14 home-and-home series with the Maple Leafs.
• Buffalo’s four goals and plus-3 goal differential in the second period both marked season-highs for the team in a single period.
• Jack Eichel recorded three points (2+1) today to extend his point streak to eight games (8+7).
• Eichel now has 12 goals in 14 career games against the Maple Leafs. It’s his highest goal total and his best per-game goal output (.86) against any NHL opponent.
• Jimmy Vesey’s two-point effort extended his point streak to a career-high four games (3+2). He now has goals in three straight.
• With Buffalo’s fourth goal of the game, Victor Olofsson extended his career-best point streak to six games (3+3).
  
• Olofsson has now recorded points in 10 of his last 11 games (4+6), including a point in each of his last six home games (2+4).
  
• Marco Scandella recorded two assists, good for his first two-point effort since Dec. 29, 2018 vs. Boston.
• With his goal today, Jeff Skinner has scored each of his 10 goals this season at 5-on-5.

Tonight’s Goaltenders

Post-Game Audio

Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger

Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt

Sabres forward Victor Olofsson

Sabres forward Jimmy Vesey

Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe

Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews

Maple Leafs forward John Tavares

Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly

Maple Leafs goaltender Michael Hutchinson

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Post-Game Report: 11/16 vs. OttawaIn “Post-Game Report”This entry was posted in Post-Game Report and tagged Auston Matthews, Casey Mittelstadt, Jimmy Vesey, John Tavares, Michael Hutchinson, Morgan Rielly, Ralph Krueger, Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs, Victor Olofsson. Bookmark the permalink.

LEAVE A REPLY

HEAD COACH SHELDON KEEFE

On what he can take from Hutchinson’s performance today:

I think there will be a lot of focus on Hutch, of course, but there’s a lot more going on in the game than just that. We’re in a good spot, I thought Hutch played an excellent first period, allowed us to get out of there with the 1-0 lead and build on that lead. I just didn’t think we took care of it very well. We were really sloppy with the puck in important spots, things that we spoke about in-between periods after the first and didn’t adjust well and didn’t take care of it. So, that’s an area we have to clean up. I thought we just handed them the puck in bad spots. Dangerous shooters, that made it hard.

On missed opportunities to score more early coming back to play a factor in the end:

Yeah, those of course are factors. You know, when you look back and how the game finishes, I think [Nylander] was in alone there twice in the first period, [Kapanen] in the second period. So, you’re 0-for-3 on breakaways and don’t play a very good hockey game yet push back in the third enough to make it a fight right to the end and end up losing by one goal plus the empty net. There’s a lot of encouraging signs there still that are positives for us. But there’s still lots of lessons to be learned, for sure. We’ll make sure we clean those up for tomorrow.

On if Buffalo did anything to prevent the team from finding its rhythm:

Well, you’ve got to give some credit to them. I thought they did do a nice job. Things that we talked about going into the game, we knew the neutral zone was going to be hard to get through today with just how they set up their structure there. In all the games we’ve watched previous to this, teams have had a tougher time getting through there. So we thought that was a problem for us, but I thought we were in a good spot and then just kind of forced one more pass instead of putting the puck into a better place where we could have gone after it. We did a better job of that in the third period at times and it paid off for us. We’ll have to do more of that. 

MICHAEL HUTCHINSON (30 SAVES)

On tonight’s loss:

It was a tough game. I thought we came out in the first period and played well and played really well in the third period. I think it shows a lot about our team that we were able to make adjustments after the second period and come out and generate a lot of offense in the third period. We came close a bunch of times, I thought [Matthews] was possessed on that one shift late in the third period where it just felt like the puck was going to go in, but their goalie made some big saves and it ended up being the difference.

On how he felt in his first game back seeing being recalled from the Marlies:

I felt okay. There’s an adjustment going both ways when you’re going from the NHL down to the American League there’s an adjustment and there’s an adjustment coming up. For myself, it wasn’t the cleanest game – I was battling hard trying to find pucks – that’s one of those things where the more you play, you feel more comfortable. I was just trying to battle through and get my body on pucks, as many pucks as I could. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the win.

AUSTON MATTHEWS (24:48 TOI)

On what went wrong after a good first period:

I thought we had a good start to the game. Obviously, we were up a couple goals but I think it kind of just got away from us a little bit out of the first. Especially in the second period, I think we weren’t taking care of the puck. I think we were just trying to look for the perfect play through the neutral zone and sometimes it’s just not there. Obviously, tough finish to this game, regroup and get ready for tomorrow.

On if they could have scored more in the first period:

Yeah, we had some really good chances there in the first period and their goalie made some good saves. Like I said, we just got away from our game. They picked up their intensity and I think we sat back on our heels and the rest is history.

MORGAN RIELLY (2 ASSISTS)

On where things went wrong after going up 2-0 in the first period:

They made a push, for sure. I think halfway through the game we kind of lost track of what we were doing, what the game plan was and they definitely capitalized on that. I thought we came out in the third, we battled but too little too late. I think it’s more important going forward that we continue the game plan for 60 and not stray from it when you get a lead.

On if tonight was a case of the game coming too easy at first and subsequentially losing focus:

I think that might be a bit in-depth, I think it’s just a matter of getting the lead and taking your foot of the gas.  Obviously, with that they capitalized and in this league that happens. So, like I said, moving forward it’s going to be more important for us to be more consistent over 60 minutes and we can worry about that tomorrow night.

JOHN TAVARES (2 GOALS)

On what led to the loss after a good start:

I think, especially with the last three games, we built some really good things. We got the lead; we were a little sloppy at times but had some good opportunities. We just weren’t very hard on pucks; we were sloppy coming through the neutral zone quite a bit and that led to some of the transition. You can see they started making some plays, feeling good about themselves. We continued to give ourselves a chance but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot.

On if the Sabres did anything to turn the momentum:

They definitely, I thought, tried to really pack the neutral zone and play really patient on us. You can think you’ve got some time and space but they were closing things off pretty quickly as we were trying to come up. We’ve got to find a way to get through that and continue to play with the speed that we can. Understand what’s there, take what’s given and not force the issue at times.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (12-11-4 – 28 Points) vs.

BUFFALO SABRES (12-10-4 – 28 Points)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2019

GAME SUMMARY         |           EVENT SUMMARY        |           FACEOFF SUMMARY

ON THE SCORESHEET

• John Tavares opened the scoring for the Maple Leafs at 18:54 of the first period before scoring Toronto’s second goal of the game at 1:21 of the second period. Tavares has goals (3) and points (3-1-4) in two consecutive games. Tonight’s game is his first multi-goal performance of the season and sixth multi-point game of 2019-20. Last season, Tavares recorded at least one point in all four games against the Sabres and had multiple points on two occasions.
• Dmytro Timashov scored the third Maple Leafs goal of the night at 6:50 of the third period. Timashov has points (1-1-2) in two consecutive games, the first point streak of his NHL career. He has recorded all six of his points (2 goals, 4 assists) against Atlantic Division opponents.
• Kasperi Kapanen had the lone assist on Tavares’ second period goal and later scored the fourth Toronto goal of the game at 12:10 of the third period. Kapanen has assists (2) in two consecutive games and points (2-2-4) in four consecutive games. He leads the Maple Leafs in points on the road this season (6-7-13). Tonight’s game is his fourth multi-point performance of the season.
• Ilya Mikheyev registered the primary assist on Tavares’ first period goal. Mikheyev has assists (3) in two consecutive games. He has six assists over his last five games. All 17 (4-13-17) of Mikheyev’s points have come at even-strength this season. He has 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) in 10 games against Atlantic Division opponents this season.
• Morgan Rielly picked up the secondary assist on Tavares’ first period goal and later had the secondary assist on Timashov’s third period goal. Rielly has assists (4) in two consecutive games. He ranks second among NHL defencemen in even-strength assists (13). Rielly has 10 assists in 14 games on the road this season. Tonight’s game is his fourth multi-assist and fifth multi-point performance of 2019-20.
• Jason Spezza recorded the primary assist on Timashov’s third period goal. Spezza has assists (3) in three consecutive games. He has six points (2-4-6) over his past six games played. Spezza has registered eight (3-5-8) of his 10 points in 10 road games this season.
• Nic Petan had the lone assist on Kapanen’s third period goal. Petan has three assists in 12 games played this season.
• Michael Hutchinson stopped 30 shots in the loss.

SHOTS ON GOAL (5-on-5 in brackets)

SHOT ATTEMPTS (5-on-5 in brackets)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS

RECORD WHEN…

OF NOTE…

• The Maple Leafs went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and 0-for-4 on the power play tonight.
• Toronto forwards Pierre Engvall, Frederik Gauthier, Zach Hyman and Dmytro Timashov were the lone Maple Leafs to not start a 5-on-5 shift in the offensive zone.
• Auston Matthews won 71 percent (5 won, 2 lost) of his offensive zone draws.
• Jake Muzzin was on the ice for a team-high 18 Toronto shot attempts-for at 5-on-5 tonight. Muzzin finished the game with a 5-on-5 shot attempt percentage of 58.1 percent (18 for, 13 against).

UPCOMING GAMES:

• Saturday, November 30, 7:00 p.m. vs. Buffalo Sabres (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)
• Tuesday, December 3, 7:00 p.m. at Philadelphia Flyers (TSN4, TSN 1050)
• Wednesday, December 4, 7:00 p.m. vs. Colorado Avalanche (Sportsnet, FAN 590)
• Saturday, December 7, 7:00 p.m. at St. Louis Blues (Sportsnet, TSN 1050)
• Tuesday, December 10, 10:00 p.m. at Vancouver Canucks (TSN4, TSN 1050)

Stats reflect official NHL stats at the time of distribution. Please consult official NHL game sheets (links above) to confirm no statistical changes were made.