Maple Leafs, Red Wings playing in rubber match
TORONTO -- The Detroit Red Wings will return to the Scotiabank Arena Sunday night, slightly more than two weeks after defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 there in overtime.
The Maple Leafs scored three third-period goals to tie that game, Dec. 6., but the Red Wings came away with the two points on Dylan Larkin's overtime goal.
The Red Wings (15-17-5) have had little success since, going 2-5-1 including a 2-1 loss Saturday afternoon to the Florida Panthers at Little Caesars Arena.
The Maple Leafs (24-10-2) have gone 4-2-1 since that game, including a 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday night with Mitch Marner scoring two goals and adding an assist.
The game Sunday will be the third meeting this season between the teams. Toronto won 5-3 in Detroit Oct. 11.
After winning against the Hurricanes at Carolina Thursday night, the Red Wings fell behind the Panthers early Saturday, and never really recovered. They were 0-for-4 on the power play, with two of the opportunities coming in the third period.
"Another frustrating loss," said Red Wings left winger Thomas Vanek, who scored his fifth of the season. "We need to score, I need to score more. It's no secret about that. Sometimes it takes a little while for us to get going, and once we get going, we get those chances, but it takes 10 or 12 scoring chances to get something. We get two power plays in the third and got some good looks, but good looks aren't good enough when you're losing games."
"We had enough opportunities in the game, we have to score," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "The power play, overall in the game, three of the four, were good. The third one was no good, the first of the third period. That was no good at all. But three of them were good, we had good looks and chances, but we didn't score."
The Red Wings, already depleted by injuries, had more bad news before the game. Center Andreas Athanasiou (upper body), who was hurt in the victory over the Hurricanes at Carolina on Thursday was not able to play against Florida and is not expected to be ready to play Sunday.
The Maple Leafs who were without left winger Zach Hyman, who has a sprained ankle, lost left winger Tyler Ennis during the game Saturday with a broken ankle.
"So, he's out for a while," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "We'll figure out what we're doing tonight. We've only got 11 forwards, so we'll have to do something here."
Ennis had seven goals and four assists in 33 games.
"He was coming on, right?" Babcock said. "His year didn't go as good as he wanted last year, and he was starting to come so it's unfortunate. As you guys know it's all part of hockey. You've got to have a lot of depth to have success."
Marner has 12 goals and 38 assists this season with six of his goals coming in the past four games.
"I think I'm just thinking more of shooting," Marner said. "Getting to the net more and, when you get around that net, I think chances come more often so that's just something I've been trying to focus on recently. I think also Hyman, John Tavares and now (Andreas Johnsson), all three of those guys can move the puck very well. For me, it's just getting to the front of the net and try and bang in those second opportunities."
"Every night he's one of our best players, if not the best player," Babcock said. "He works really hard, he's really good defensively, he does it right. In the end, if you do it right, you get rewarded. He's getting rewarded."
