Playing in the second half of a back-to-back, the Leafs played a strong 60 minutes to secure their 9th win of the season.

In what Craig Berube coins “low event” periods, that is exactly what the first period of this game was. Toronto only allowed two shots from the Montreal offense through 20 minutes.

Toronto was able to get ahead in the first frame, coming off a Conor Timmins wrister that beat Montembeault to give the Buds a 1-0 lead. “I fanned on the puck and then instincts took over,” Timmins said. “Just tried to get the puck on net and it went in. It was great. I haven’t got one in a while so to see it go in was a great feeling.”

Nylander made it 2-0 at 5:39 into the second period when he deked around Lane Hutson in the slot and shot it past Montembeault to keep the Leafs’ powerplay on a heater. Morgan Rielly assisted on the goal for his 400th in the NHL, putting him 3rd all time for Maple Leafs defenders.

Marner scored to make it 3-0 a couple minutes later, when he took a pass from David Kampf and shot from the top of the goal crease while on the penalty kill with Montembeault out of position. This goal was Toronto’s first short-handed goal of the season.

Not long after, Brendan Gallagher cut the lead to 3-1 beating Joe Woll off a rebound at the top of the goal crease.

Back on the man advantage, John Tavares scored his second powerplay goal in as many nights to regain a 3-goal lead. With the absence of Auston Matthews, the team is now getting used to more looks and different plays, potentially giving them better chances when on the man advantage. It was the fifth straight powerplay that Toronto has scored.

“Every game is important but no doubt when you are playing teams in your division jockeying for positioning with how the playoff format is set up, [these games] are important so I think it was just the way the schedule was set up this week,” Tavares said. “Good week all around but we know we still have a lot of areas to get better in.”

Toronto has a couple nights off as they face the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night, then head off to Washington to face the Capitals on Wednesday. Look for Auston Matthews to return to the lineup in one of those games.