TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (17-6-2 – 36 Points) at
MINNESOTA WILD (17-6-1 – 35 Points)
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2021
1 2 3 OT SO FINAL
TORONTO 0 3 0 0 0 (1-3) 3
MINNESOTA 1 2 0 0 1 (2-3) 4
GAME SUMMARY | EVENT SUMMARY | FACE-OFF SUMMARY
ON THE SCORESHEET
- Jason Spezza scored for Toronto at 12:47 of the second period. Spezza scored his second goal of the
game on a Toronto power play opportunity at 17:51 of the second period. Spezza also recorded the
primary assist on Matthews’ power play goal. Spezza posted his first multi-goal game of the season
and his first three-point game of the season. - Auston Matthews scored on a power play opportunity at 19:10 of the second period. Matthews has
scored in five-consecutive games (7G). Matthews also registered the primary assist on Spezza’s power
play goal recording his 10th assist of the season. During Matthews’ five-game point streak, he has
posted nine points (7G, 2A). - Nick Ritchie recorded the primary assist on Spezza’s first goal. Ritchie posted his sixth assist of the
season. - Morgan Rielly registered the secondary assist on both of Spezza’s goals as well as Matthews’ goal.
Rielly recorded his first three-point outing of the season.
SHOTS ON GOAL (5-on-5 in brackets)
1st 2nd 3rd OT TOTAL
TORONTO 6 (5) 20 (14) 11 (11) 5 (0) 42 (30)
MINNESOTA 9 (9) 7 (3) 22 (15) 2 (0) 40 (27)
SHOT ATTEMPTS (5-on-5 in brackets)
1st 2nd 3rd OT TOTAL
TORONTO 16 (14) 28 (21) 15 (15) 6 (0) 65 (50)
MINNESOTA 16 (16) 12 (7) 31 (22) 6 (0) 65 (45)
ON THE ROAD AGAIN - The Maple Leafs are 7-3-1 on the road this season.
- Toronto’s all-time record is 12-11-0-2 in 25 games against the Minnesota Wild and 4-6-0-2 in 12
games played in Minnesota. - Toronto is 8-2-1 against the Western Conference this season and 3-0-1 against the Central Division
this season.
MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS
Shots 8 (Matthews)
Shot Attempts 9 (Matthews, Nylander
Faceoff Wins 17 (Tavares)
Faceoff Win Percentage 74% (Tavares – 17 won, 6 lost)
Hits 1 (Holl, Simmonds, Kaše, Kämpf)
Blocked Shots 5 (Rielly)
Takeaways 1 (Spezza, Matthews, Nylander, Tavares)
TOI 26:55 (Rielly)
Power Play TOI 4:59 (Rielly)
Shorthanded TOI 4:34 (Muzzin)
Shifts 30 (Rielly)
5-on-5 Shot Attempt Percentage 66.67% (Ritchie – 8 for, 4 against, Simmonds – 10
for, 5 against)
RECORD WHEN… - The Maple Leafs were 2-for-5 on the power play and 4-for-5 on the penalty kill tonight.
- Toronto is 5-5-2 when the opponent scores the first goal of the game.
- The Maple Leafs are 2-3-2 when trailing after one period and 2-0-2 when tied after two periods.
- Toronto is 11-3-2 when outshooting their opponent.
- The Maple Leafs are 4-2-1 in Saturday games and 2-2-1 in the first game of a back-to-back.
OF NOTE… - Per NHL Stats, Auston Matthews recorded his sixth career five-game goal streak. Only two Maple Leafs players have recorded more: Babe Dye (8x) and Rick Vaive (7x).
- Morgan Rielly was on the ice for a team-high 25 Toronto shot attempts-for at 5-on-5.
- Nick Ritchie (8 for, 4 against) and Wayne Simmonds (10 for, 5 against) finished the game with a
team-high 5-on-5 shot attempt percentage of 66.67 percent.
UPCOMING GAMES:
Dec. 5 Leafs at Winnipeg Canada Life Centre 8:00 pm ET
Dec. 7 Leafs vs. Columbus Scotiabank Arena 7:00 pm ET
Dec. 9 Leafs vs. Tampa Bay Scotiabank Arena 7:00 pm ET
Dec. 11 Leafs vs. Chicago Scotiabank Arena 7:00 pm ET
Dec. 14 Leafs at Edmonton Rogers Place 9:00 pm ET
Dec. 16 Leafs at Calgary Scotiabank Saddledome 9:00 pm ET
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.
For Maple Leafs notes, transcripts, audio clips and media guides, please visit MapleLeafs.com/pressbox.
POSTGAME QUOTES:
HEAD COACH SHELDON KEEFE
Q: On tonight’s game:
Sheldon Keefe: “It’s a big point for us. Love that our guys didn’t go away in 3-0 and instead just dug in
and wanted to make a game of it. We took over the game at the back half of that second period and that
was enough to earn us a point.”
Q: On adjusting with Marner out of the lineup:
Sheldon Keefe: “Yeah, it was difficult. We knew that going in. I mean Mitch is an important player for us
for obvious reasons. Not having him and having Kaše coming back and it being his first game it would be
a tough ask for him to go up into that situation, we wanted to give him some familiarity. I knew going into
the game, I had talked to Wayne Simmonds before the game that I was going to start him there but that I
fully expected that I was going to move things all over the place and move Auston all over the place, give
him different wingers at different times. I wanted Spezza to get time there, but I knew that if I did that, that
I would lose a centre in doing so and I didn’t want to move Kerfoot out. I was trying to have as little
disruption as possible. Once we got down, I really just kind of lost some of our guys, Joey Anderson didn’t
get much here today just because I felt we were a few guys short when I was moving other people around
and then penalties of course were another factor.”
MORGAN RIELLY
Q: On coming back from a 3-0 deficit and getting a point:
Morgan Rielly: “Yeah, it’s a good thing obviously. We haven’t had to do that a lot lately, but I think it’s a
good sign that we were able to come back, obviously you don’t want to put yourself in a hole. But I
thought we did a good job of coming back, power plays were a big part of that. I mean we’ll take the point
but moving forward we want to have better starts.”
Q: On the team killing off a five-on-three:
Morgan Rielly: “Yeah. Huge kill. Obviously I thought those guys did a great job, Holl and Muzzin on the
back end. That’s just character, I think those are the kills that you like late in the game to see and
obviously a big point in the game for us.”
AUSTON MATTHEWS
Q: On tonight’s game:
Auston Matthews: “I think there’s a lot of good that we can take from it except being down by three. Just
the resiliency of this group to continue to play and battle back. It would have been easy to just pack it in
and hope for best, to live to fight another day, but we just continued to work and compete and got some
big goals and got the point. Obviously we’re still leaving a little bit sour but I think we could be proud of
the effort that we had.”
Q: On adjusting with Marner out of the lineup:
Auston Matthews: “He’s not a guy you can just replace but we have a lot of belief in our group. No
matter who I play with, I have confidence in every single guy out there and obviously tonight we had lot of
mixing and matching and that’s fine with me. We just go out there and compete no matter who’s on the
ice and just try to create plays and create offensive zone time and look to attack so obviously, like I said,
Mitch is a guy you just can’t replace but we got a lot of really good players in this locker room and a lot of
believe here within our group so not matter who it is I know we have full confidence.”
JASON SPEZZA
Q: On tonight’s game:
Jason Spezza: “Great character win for us. I thought they got some lucky breaks on their goals and it
didn’t deter us. We got a lucky break on my first one and good power plays and a little back and forth.
Penalty kill came up huge to get us that point, but two good hockey clubs settled by a shootout, pretty
good game.”
Q: On adjusting with Marner out of the lineup:
Jason Spezza: “It’s not ideal but we’re pros and we go through this stuff all the time. Take Mitch out and
it’s a huge cog to our team to be out of the lineup obviously. He’s not replaced by just plugging someone
else in and expecting it to be replaced, but we’re pros and we’re used to this stuff happening.”
JACK CAMPBELL
Q: On adjusting with Marner out of the lineup:
Jack Campbell: “Mitch is such a huge part of our team everybody knows that and anytime he’s in the
lineup it’s huge but it’s also a huge opportunity for guys to step up and handle some adversity there, three
kind of flukey goals and we battled back to force overtime and a shootout and just proud of the way those
guys battled all night.”
Q: On his performance during tonight’s game:
Jack Campbell: “I felt really good. I felt like I was dialed in all night and just had a couple unfortunate
bounces and that’s a part of hockey, 82 games in a year, you’re going to have some of those nights and
just focus on the next shot and we were able to get a point but obviously I expect myself to make some of
those saves in the shootout for sure.
The view from left field 