Good thing the Hockey Hall of Fame festivities for the weekend are just getting started.
No one among the crowd of 19,152 at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night will claim the match between the Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings was the most exciting they’ve witnessed.
Least exciting? Quite possibly.
All that mattered for the Leafs was the result, a 3-1 victory that pushed their record to 8-5-2.
It was Toronto’s first victory of 2024-25 in which they did not score four goals.
John Tavares had two goals, including one into an empty Wings net, Mitch Marner had a goal and an assist and defenceman Morgan Rielly had two assists.
Goalie Anthony Stolarz wasn’t busy, facing 22 Detroit shots. Toronto had 20 shots on goal.
Leafs captain Auston Matthews missed his second consecutive game because of an upper-body issue and earlier in the day was placed on injured reserve.
The Leafs improved to 37-19-2 in games Matthews has missed in his National Hockey League career.
Toronto’s power play continued to blossom.
After going 3-for-38 in their first 12 games, the Leafs were 4-for-9 in their past two games and scored two more with a man advantage against Detroit.
Marner extended his point streak to seven games when he put a rebound past Wings goalie Cam Talbot at 11:12 of the first period.
The 1-0 Toronto lead held until 9:10 of the second, when the Wings responded on the power play. Captain Dylan Larkin had enough time to pick the top corner over the catching glove of Stolarz to score.
Less than two minutes later, the Leafs countered.
A Marner pass went off a Wings stick and directly to Tavares, who quickly beat Talbot with a low shot to the glove side at 11:01. That goal stood as the winner.
With just one goal in his first 12 games, Nick Robertson thought he had his second when he deposited a pass from Bobby McMann into the net behind Talbot at 2:01 of the first period.
It wasn’t to be.
Detroit coach Derek Lalonde challenged for goalie interference, and it wasn’t a long review that determined McMann prevented Talbot from being able to make a save.
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