Tornto Maple Leafs exorcise demons in overtime victory over Devils
By Austin Owens
The Toronto Maple Leafs continued to prove they can get results without Auston Matthews, in a 1-0 overtime win over the New Jersey Devils.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had a lot of fans up in arms early Thursday morning. After a four day break on the heels of a back-to-back sweep of the Boston Bruins, many expected the franchise cornerstone to be back in the lineup against the New Jersey Devils.
That wasn’t the case though, as Auston Matthews was ruled out of his fourth consecutive games with an undisclosed injury.
The Maple Leafs had suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of the Devils back in October, dropping a game on home ice by a 6-3 score.
Like the last stretch of games, however, the Toronto Maple Leafs showed they could produce wins without their star. They beat the Devils 1-0 in the final seconds of overtime, to take the extra point from their East Conference foes.
Let’s get to our three takeaways from the game, starting off by talking about the Matthews situation.