The view from left field

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (22-8-3 – 47 Points) at
COLORADO AVALANCHE (21-8-2 – 44 Points)
SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 2022
1 2 3 OT FINAL
TORONTO 3 1 0 0 4
COLORADO 1 1 2 1 5

• Alexander Kerfoot scored for Toronto at 7:54 of the first period. Kerfoot posted his sixth goal of the season. Kerfoot also registered the secondary assist on Matthews’ first goal of the game as well as the primary assist on Matthews’ second goal of the game. Kerfoot has posted 18 assists this season.
  Kerfoot has recorded eight points (2G, 6A) through the last three games.
• Auston Matthews scored his first goal of the game at 14:17 of the first period. Matthews scored his second goal of the game at 14:50 of the first period. Matthews posted his seventh multi-goal game of the season. Matthews has registered 22 goals this season.
• Nick Ritchie scored on a Toronto power play opportunity at 5:39 of the second period. Richie scored his second goal of the season.
• Michael Bunting registered the primary assist on Kerfoot’s goal. Bunting recorded his 13th assist of the season.
• Morgan Rielly posted the primary assist on Matthews’ first goal of the game. Rielly posted his 24th assist of the season.
• Jake Muzzin recorded the secondary assist on Matthews’ second goal of the game. Muzzin posted his ninth assist of the season.
• Wayne Simmonds posted the primary assist on Ritchie’s power play goal. Simmonds recorded his seventh assist of the season.
• Ilya Mikheyev registered the secondary assist on Ritchie’s power play goal. Mikheyev posted his first assist of the season. Mikheyev is currently on a three-game point streak where he has posted four points (3G, 1A).
• Jack Campbell stopped 44-of-49 shots in tonight’s overtime loss. Campbell recorded the second highest shots against total of his NHL career (49).
  SHOTS ON GOAL (5-on-5 in brackets)
  1st 2nd 3rd OT TOTAL
  TORONTO 10 (10) 10 (9) 5 (4) 2 (0) 27 (23)
  COLORADO 12 (8) 15 (12) 21 (14) 3 (0) 51 (34)
  ON THE ROAD AGAIN
• The Maple Leafs are 8-4-2 on the road this season.
• Toronto’s all-time record is 33-40-10-3 in 86 games against the Colorado Avalanche and 14-18-6-2 in 40 games played in Colorado.
• Toronto is 11-3-2 against the Western Conference this season and 4-1-2 against the Central Division this season.
  MAPLE LEAFS LEADERS
  Shots 7 (Matthews)
  Shot Attempts 7 (Matthews)
  Faceoff Wins 18 (Kämpf)
  Faceoff Win Percentage 79% (Tavares – 11 won, 3 lost)
  Hits 6 (Ritchie)
  Blocked Shots 4 (Muzzin)
  Takeaways 3 (Matthews)
  TOI 25:28 (Holl)
  Power Play TOI 1:15 (Nylander, Tavares)
  Shorthanded TOI 5:53 (Kämpf)
  RECORD WHEN…
• The Maple Leafs were 1-for-1 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill tonight.
• Toronto is 16-2-1 when scoring the first goal of the game.
• The Maple Leafs are 13-1-1 when leading after one period and 17-0-1 when leading after two periods.
• Toronto is 8-4-1 when outshot by their opponent.
• The Maple Leafs are 6-2-2 in Saturday games.
  OF NOTE…
• The Maple Leafs are 3-3 in overtime decisions this season.
• Per NHL Stats, Auston Matthews scored twice in a span of 33 seconds. It marks his 45th career multi-goal game, one shy of Alex Ovechkin (46) for the most among all players since the Maple Leafs forward entered the NHL in 2016-17.
• Per NHL Stats, Auston Matthews’ two goal in a span of 33 seconds were the fastest by a Maple Leafs player since Mark Arcobello on Feb. 13, 2016 (0:17).
• David Kämpf earned 18 face-off wins during tonight’s game, recording an NHL single-game career high.
• Justin Holl recorded a season-high 25:28 in time on ice.
  UPCOMING GAMES:
  Jan. 11 Leafs at Vegas T-Mobile Arena 10:00 pm ET
  Jan. 12 Leafs at Arizona Gila River Arena 10:00 pm ET
  Jan. 15 Leafs at St. Louis Enterprise Center 7:00 pm ET
  Jan. 19 Leafs at New York Rangers Madison Square Garden 7:30 pm ET
  Jan. 22 Leafs at New York Islanders UBS Arena 7:00 pm ET
  Jan. 26 Leafs vs. Anaheim Scotiabank Arena 7:00 pm ET
  Stats reflect official NHL stats at the time of distribution.
  POSTGAME QUOTES:
  HEAD COACH SHELDON KEEFE
  On what could have been done to secure tonight’s early lead:
  “Hard to say. I’m going to watch it back. There aren’t many teams in the league that could keep these guys below four these days. I think it’s tough, it’s tough to do that, especially with a short bench today and missing three very important forwards. Three guys that will be vital for us in protecting a lead like that and
  allowing us to use more of our bench. Three penalty killers as well. We had to kill four penalties today and we had one power play. Penalty kill did an outstanding job, but I take nothing but positive out of this game
  tonight. I know the way you give up the lead in the third and you end up losing in overtime… We tie the game here today, it’s a huge point for us, and all things considered, this team we’re playing tonight is
  rolling. It’s a tough building to play in. It’s probably the loudest building we’ve played in all year, so you come out of playing in front of no fans and then you’re into this. The response from our group to start the
  game I thought was outstanding, even though it took us a little bit to get our offence moving I just thought our guys worked, our structure was really good and even though the shot volume goes up throughout the
  game, I just don’t think we gave up much in terms of dangerous scoring chances when we did, Soupy was unbelievable with some of the saves he made. I thought our guys did what we asked of them today, would we liked to get two points? Absolutely. Should we have had two points? Absolutely, but that’s a
  very good team and to come out here on the road and get a point is huge for our group.”
  JACK CAMPBELL
  On tonight’s game:
  “It was a good game. Crowd was really loud, it was fun out there and I thought our guys competed really hard. If I play up to my standard, we win that game every time.”
  On Toronto’s penalty kill:
  “Yeah, it was huge for us. The guys in front of me did a great job. We had a bunch of big blocks in the first, and in the third again, and they have a great power play over there and I just thought our guys in
  front of me did the best job they could possibly do to go into overtime, big kill at the end of the game, unfortunately we didn’t get the second point.”
  AUSTON MATTHEWS
  On Jack Campbell’s play tonight:
  “First of all, I think Soup played unbelievable tonight honestly. I mean some of the saves he made tonight, one of them is going to be save of the year honestly so I think he did everything he could. That’s a really good team over there and obviously they aren’t going to go away, you saw that tonight, but Soup did
  everything he could. They make plays, they have some good players on their side and they kind of got the momentum going their way in the second half of the game and were able to tie it up but by no means do I think Jack Campbell didn’t play up to his standard tonight cause he was unbelievable for us just like
  he’s been unbelievable for us all year.”
  On starting the road trip with a point:
  “Yeah, it would have nice to get the second point but that’s a really good team over there, they are going to get their chances and I think they just were able to get the momentum on their side and able to score a couple goals and kind of get that shift over there, the crowd was really into it and they forced OT. I think
  the whole time we obviously expected a win and just a couple minor details that kind of slipped that they were able to capitalize on. Like I said, that’s a good team over there and I think we feel really strongly
  about ourselves as well. I think we did a lot of really good things but obviously were leaving a little bit disappointed not getting that second point.”
  ALEXANDER KERFOOT
  On starting the road trip with a point:
  “It is tough coming in here. We’re playing in front of no fans. I don’t know, the energy was high in that game, the crowd was into it. When they started pushing there in the third it was a lot of fun to be out there but I thought our start was good, all things considered. Got out to a lead, held it, the game flow kind of
  turned in their favour, they gave it to us pretty good there in the latter half of the game, we were on our
  heels a bit. But then we had pushed ourselves, Soupy was great all night keeping us in it and obviously it is disappointing giving up the lead and only giving up one point.”
  On playing on a line with Auston Matthews:
  “Yeah, that’s pretty self-explanatory. I think he’s obviously an elite player in this league and I think that anyone who gets to play with him is lucky to play with him. You’ve seen it all year and we see it every day.”