As Mick says, “there’s a lot of bingo balls in the hopper”. Let’s go Griffwings!
Why does this game matter? Tronna needs a point to secure home ice advantage in the playoffs.
First Period
First five minutes are pretty even matched and fast paced considering the Red Wings roster is pasted together with Griffins-shaped bandaids. Both Ned and Campbell have had to be awake and functional.
I think this was the first whistle of the period just before the halfway point. Game is going fast so far and the Griffwings are keeping up with the Leafs. Doing a good job swarming whoever has the puck.
Rasmussen is taking on quite a bit of the “fill in the blank” forward role. And for good reason, he’s making a lot of good attempts and shrugging off checks.
5:19 to go and a scramble around the net but Ned pounces to freeze the puck.
The period will end with a Red Wings Penalty Kill as Suter goes to the Bad Boy Box for tripping. It was a fair call, but naturally Ras was tripped earlier with no call. Leafs are doing everything they can for Matthews to score to the point where even DeKeyser knew where he was to block the attempt. The penalty is killed!!
Onward to the second! Tied 0-0.
Rasmussen leading TOI with a little over 8 minutes, with Seider a few seconds behind.
Second Period
Leafs fans starting to get a little disgruntled with the Leafs still being smothered by the Wings for the most part. Matthews denied again. Ned is on point.
13:48 to go and the Leafs fans start quietly booing as it’s time for a Rrrrrred Wings powerplay! Robertson in the Crimes Cabana for hi-sticking Gagner. You wouldn’t know we were on a powerplay. Raymond gets crunched into the boards and he is not thrilled about it. One really nice tic-tac-toe attempt with Hirose->Sundqvist->Veleno. The first shot of the period for the Wings but it at least was a good attempt. The powerplay is dead.
Still fast paced. Limited whistles. Tronna fans grumbling. Matthews trying to score. Ned having none of it. Mo Seider doing Mo Seider things.
After a billion attempts Matthews does score his 59th goal of the season. 1-0 Leafs with 4 minutes to go in the period. Wings are starting to look a little gassed but we get a powerplay with 1:27 to go! Engvall “interferes” with Vrana and goes to the Enclosure for Evildoers.
That’ll do it. 1-0 Leafs with 30 seconds of powerplay time to start the third.
Third Period
The rest of the penalty is killed.
Shots are 24-15 Leafs now, Wings are fading a bit. Still hanging in there trying to help out Ned but the plan fails. Tavares scores. 2-0 Leafs.
Confusion! On the Penalty. Seider gets called for a penalty, that he was nowhere near having fallen down. The penalty should be on Stephens – yes that’s a player on our team. Blash is arguing with the refs reminding them that Stephens is a player and was on the ice. After looking at the video, yes it is Stephens to the Sin Stall. Penalty kill time!
The penalty is not killed. Matthews scores his 60th goal. 3-0 Leafs.
8ish minutes to go and 0 shots for the Red Wings, but we get another chance with another powerplay! Mikheyev sits in the Jerk Jail for boarding against Gagner. Vrana shoots and clank off the goalpost. The powerplay is killed.
5 minutes to endure.
Ned is still making big saves. None of the goals were his fault, he’s been great.
Final: 3-0 Leafs. Shots 36-20 Leafs.
One more game until the season is over and you can officially pick your bandwagon team and complain loudly about the Draft Lottery.