Postgame: AUSTON WINS IT!

For the second game in a row, the Leafs faced off against a team who played in the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup Final.

One of those teams remains among the league’s top teams, and one of them is the Detroit Red Wings.

The Leafs scored two goals in the second, and did not take their foot off the gas after that. A strong possession performance, and though things got a little shaky in the third period, the Leafs came through and pulled with a big W.

No one scored.  No one took any penalties. What do you want?

Anthony Mantha opened the scoring, which was less than ideal. His 20th goal of the season is worth giving props to on a bad Wings team, but even then they can’t seem to do a whole lot right.

Within two minutes of taking the 1-0 lead, the Red Wings not only had given up the lead, but were actually now losing on the strength of two goals by James van Riemsdyk and Mitch Marner, scored just 18 seconds apart.

Here’s one…

and two.

Heading into the final twenty, the Leafs had to be feeling pretty good about their ability to close this one out.

But wait, there’s more!

The Red Wings would magically find a way to tie things up, courtesy the stick of one aged Henrik Zetterberg. Not exactly the player he used to be, Zetterberg still found an opening down low by the Leafs net and

Would there be overtime? Would the Leafs blow it?

Is there a meaning to life?

Yes there is, and the meaning to life is Auston Matthews. With just 30.2 seconds left on the clock, the world’s best even strength goal scorer was at it again. Getting the puck off the stick of William Nylander, he found the back of the net and put the game to bed.

Detroit didn’t really have any answer, not even firing off a single shot after that, and it was the Leafs stealing all two points from this one.

In sentences you never thought you’d say, Curtis McElhinney continued to perform and is now up to a .932 save percentage on the season.