Life after Marner began Wednesday night at the Scotiabank Arena with the Maple Leafs winning their season opener 5-2 against the Montréal Canadiens
The Leafs brought the packed house to their feet early. After an offensive zone face-off win by John Tavares, William Nylander danced between the circles and flipped a shot toward the net that Bobby McMann deflected past Habs’ goalie Sam Montembeault to make it 1-0 Toronto a minute into the game.
The Leafs looked to expand their lead soon after on the power play, but a lazy Nylander entry pass was intercepted by Habs’ forward Oliver Kapanen, who skated to the circles and blasted one past Anthony Stolarz to tie the game 1-1 at the 5:39 mark of the first period.
Montreal grabbed the lead early in the second. A minute and a half in, off a misplay on the boards by defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Canadien’s winger Kirby Dach tipped a pass to Patrick Gallagher, who fired a shot on Stolarz, leaving a rebound that Zack Bolduc tapped in to make it 2-1.
Leafs’ centre, Calle Jarnkrok, re-tied the game 2-2 a few minutes later. With Toronto pressuring the offensive zone, the puck squirted out to Morgan Rielly at the point. The Leafs’ blueliner shot it toward the net, where Jankrok outworked Montreal defenceman Arber Xhekaj, gaining control and beating Montembeault.
The original six rivals battled through the third looking for the go-ahead goal. Nearly halfway through, Stolarz robbed Lane Hutson with a nifty blocker save. On the counterattack, Matias Macelli sprung Eric Knies, who outskated a pair of stickless Canadien defenders, but couldn’t beat Montembeault, who starred the puck to the corner. Knies followed up the rebound, flicked it to the trailing Morgan Rielly, who did not miss, putting it top corner and giving the Leafs a 3-2 lead.
Toronto added two empty-netters late. One by Auston Matthews, the other by Nylander, to close out the scoring and give the Leafs a 5-2 victory.
Next up: Toronto travels to Detroit for a Saturday night game at the Little Caesars Arena
