The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated Arizona Coyotes last night at home, 3-2. It was a close contest, in which the hosts managed to get away with a valuable win, but only after overtimes.
Kasperi Kapanen netted with 3:43 inside the OT, after a breakaway. He used the mess near the offensive blue line, picked up the loose puck and headed straight towards Adin Hill.
It turned out that the Coyotes’ goalie didn’t stand any chance.
“We need these points, we need these extra points. At this point in the season with the standings, these are big points for us,” said Kapanen.
Toronto is currently third in the Atlantic division with 68 points, two more than Florida Panthers who have a game in hand. When looking at the overall standings in the Eastern Conference, Sheldon Kefee’s guys are eighth, one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers and two behind the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It is vital for them to post wins now, and each point is of great importance for their playoff run. Lately, they have been showing some signs of slowing down and posted 5-3-2 over the previous 10 events.
However, before Kapanen’s hit, there was a moment that indicated that the game might have been lost. Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun scored a goal at 1:30, beating the fantastic Jack Campbell. Up until that point the hosts’ goalie did wonders, but couldn’t stop that shot.
However, the referees decided to check the replay as they suspected that one of the guests’ players interfered with the Maple Leafs’ goalie.
And it turned out to be true. The game continued, and the Coyotes who were already celebrating had to continue playing. It seemed that they experienced this as a great setback and morale-killer. On the other side, Toronto received a second chance to reach a desperately needed win.
“We need these points,” Kapanen said. “Lucky enough, they called (the Arizona OT goal) back, and we were able to win.”
Arizona reached a lead after just 64 seconds of play, through Christian Dvorak, who scored on a rebound following Conor Garland’s shot.
Zach Hyman leveled the result at 14:23, deflecting the point shot from Tyson Barrie, and that was his first goal of the game. He would later score one more equalizer in the early third period, reaching the figure of 14 goals this season. Apart from that, Hyman has 13 assists also, making this one of his best seasons so far. The 27-year old winger, however, does not give to much attention to his stats, and he wants his team to post positive results, rather than pump up his numbers.
“Not like this in the NHL, but my last year in college, I put up some points. I try not to think about that stuff, I just go out and play my game,” Hyman told the reporters.
His Maple Leafs are hosting the Dallas Stars on Thursday. The game starts at 7 pm. Meanwhile, the Coyotes are visiting Ottawa to met the Senators on the same day.
Arizona Coyotes play against the Ottawa Senators in Canada, also on Thursday.
