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Murray Returns, Nylander Shines as Leafs Split Back-To-Back

It seems like the Leafs have been on back-to-back missions this last month. This go around, they faced off against the Buffalo Sabres, and the New York Islanders.

The first half of the back-to-back marked the return for Matt Murray, the Leafs goaltender who hasn’t played an NHL game in over 600 days.

“I think we’re all so happy for [Murray], for what he’s been through,” Domi said. “Remarkable. The resilience and the ability to stick with it mentally, out of all those days that I’m sure he had a lot to doubt in there, and it’s a long road to recovery. We’re all super proud of him.”

Bobby McMann gave the Maple Leafs the early lead at 1:29 of the first period, taking a pass from Max Domi at the bottom of the right circle on a 3-on-1 and burying it under the arm of the Buffalo goaltender. Auston Matthews scored on the powerplay to make it 2-0.

Nick Robertson was able to keep his hot streak going when he slipped a wrist shot past Luukkonen from the right circle to extend it to 3-0.

Max Domi pushed it to 4-1, when McMann spun to get a pass around a Buffalo defenseman to an oncoming Domi, who beat Luukkonen stick side from the slot. Domi’s goal made the second straight game where all of the third line scored a goal.

Pacioretty scored off a tip-in from Nylander later in the second, and Nylander finished the job scoring on the empty net to win the game 6-3.

Tavares notched two assists in this game, which marked his 600th assist in the NHL.

Toronto won in Buffalo, heading back home for the Saturday night game against the Islanders.


The Islanders are sitting in the bottom half of the standings in the Metro division, and they are not having a bright year this season.

The Leafs were yet again without captain Auston Matthews, who re-aggravated his injury in the 6-3 win against the Sabres.

Toronto went down 2-0 in the first 5 minutes of the game, and Craig Berube called a timeout to ease the Leafs into the game.

“You’re on a back-to-back, fresh team waiting for you who hasn’t played in a while and we give up two 2-on-1s in the first five minutes of the game,” Berube said. “That’s how I see it, just not very smart. A little (surprising). Early on in the period, they were better than us, on their toes and we weren’t very smart.”

William Nylander cut it to 2-1 in the first when he skated from inside the blue line and backhanded a shot over Sorokin’s glove.

William Nylander scored again in the second to make it 3-2, when he put in a great backhand pass from David Kampf at the top of the goal crease. It was Nylander’s fifth goal during a three-game streak.

Bobby McMann scored in his third straight game to cut it to 5-3 at 13:49 of the third period, but that was not enough to knock off the Islanders.

The Leafs did not play particularly well in this game. They were outplayed each period and they could not capitalize on their chances. Nylander stood out in both games of the back-to-back, but his efforts weren’t able to win the Leafs both games.

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