Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in over-time – NHL Recap
The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in over-time at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday. The Maple Leafs looked for a positive result to ensure a spot in the National Hockey League play-offs, as the Penguins needed a victory to move up
in the standings.
The game started off with both teams scoring a goal apiece in the first period. The Penguins got their noses ahead and led at the end of the second period. The Maple Leafs was able to score the only goal of the final period, to level the scores. The game
went into over-time where the Maple Leafs scored, to win the game 3-2. Mikhail Grabovski of the Maple Leafs was named the Player of the Game for scoring a goal and making an important assist.
Both the teams made a decent start to the game which created a few chances for themselves. Though the play-making was good, the finishing was not up to the mark. It appeared that the mid-field was stronger than the frontline.
The Penguins were first to benefit from the decent start, as they scored through Matt Niskanen from a powerful strike to get into the lead. The goal was scored in the seventh minute with Pascal Dupuis making the assist.
The Maple Leafs and the Penguins continued with their decent play-making which saw the Maple Leafs scoring through Nikolai Kulemin from a well placed flick-shot to level the scores. The goal was scored in the 15th minute with Mikhail Grabovski
making the assist.
The first period ended with the scores level 1-1, as the Maple Leafs made 6 goal attempts and the Penguins managed 8.
The second period saw the Penguins on top of their game, as they came up with some splendid pieces of play. There were several occasions where it looked that a goal was about to be scored, but this did not prove to be the case.
Chris Conner fired a brilliant back-hand shot in the 7th minute to put the Penguins back into the lead once again. The period continued with the Penguins dominating the game in terms of shots on goal with the Maple Leafs managing to get a few
shots in between. The period ended with the Penguins leading 2-1, as they made 9 goal attempts and the Maple Leafs managing only 4.
The Maple Leafs made a decent start to the final period which saw them attacking right from start of the proceedings. The Maple Leafs was able to score through Phil Kessel from a simple tip-in shot in the 6th minute to level the scores.
After the goal, the Penguins came out on the attack looking to score an equalizing goal. There were several chances for the Penguins to do so, but they were unable to capitalise as the period ended with the scores level on 2-2.
The period saw the Penguins making 12 goal attempts, as the Maple Leafs managed 9 shots on goal. The game went into over-time, as the Maple Leafs emerged the winners 2-1 after Mikhail Grabvoski scored through a quick fired shot which flew into the net.
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