BREAKING: Maple Leafs open 3-game home stretch vs. Blackhawks

Deadspin | Maple Leafs open 3-game home stretch vs. Blackhawks

Nov 3, 2024; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) looks on during the third period against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-Imagn Images

After the successful return of Auston Matthews, the Toronto Maple Leafs look forward to playing three consecutive home games starting Monday night against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Matthews had two assists Saturday night in a 5-3 road win over the Tampa Bay Lightning after he been sidelined nearly four weeks with an upper-body injury.

The Blackhawks will complete a back-to-back in Toronto after a 6-3 home loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday. Chicago has lost two in a row and eight of their last 11 games (3-7-1).

Matthews assisted on Toronto’s first goal on Saturday scored by Matthew Knies, who also returned from an upper-body injury after missing two games.

“Having them back is huge,” said Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll, who made 38 saves. “And you can see, our production was great tonight. We scored a few goals to get us ahead and take control of the game.”

Knies and Matthews also assisted on William Nylander’s empty-net goal in the third period after the Lightning had scored three straight goals to trim Toronto’s lead to one.

“I felt fine,” Matthews said. “As the game went on, felt a little bit better. You know, still felt a little bit rusty. But I thought our line played pretty solid all around, and simple for the most part. And obviously, it feels good to chip in with some goals there.”

Matthews played 20:23, was 16-for-24 on faceoffs and had two shots on goal.

“I thought he was strong on pucks and moved well out there,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “He did a lot of good things, same with Knies.”

Toronto’s Mitchell Marner had two assists on Saturday to extend his points streak to six games (five goals, six assists).

Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe left the game in the second period on Saturday after he took a puck off the side of his head. Berube said that McCabe should be available for Monday.

The Blackhawks are encouraged by the recent play of Connor Bedard, who had a goal and an assist on Sunday, but see room for improvement.

“He definitely looks more like himself the last few games, but on the defensive side of things, we have to be better and so does he,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “He can’t score one and give up two, right? Same as anybody else on the team.”

Chicago scored three power-play goals on Sunday, the others by Nick Foligno and Craig Smith. Each time, however, Columbus answered with a goal soon after.

“We get one back, and then we’re a little too loose — it just seemed like that,” Foligno said. “(Columbus is) an offensive team. but you smother a team like that by making them have to come through you and not giving them those opportunities. It just seemed like a little bit too much time and space on a lot of those goals. We have to rectify this.”

“We somehow got sucked into that game,” Richardson said. “That’s just (not) being disciplined on our game plan. We have to be stronger in that. Today was the whole ball of wax put together. That’s the situation Nick’s talking about.”

No. 2 goaltender Arvid Soderblom probably will play against the Maple Leafs. He had two wins against Toronto last season.

Petr Mrazek started Sunday and allowed five goals on 35 shots.