New-look Maple Leafs get an unexpected win over Wild

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The more that’s been taken away from the Maple Leafs the past few games, the better they seem to play.

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That math shouldn’t work, but Toronto now has five of a possible six points since Auston Matthews suffered a season-ending knee injury.

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Sunday’s gritty 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild cam without top defenceman Oliver-Ekman Larsson after three veterans were also traded at the March 6 deadline.

The Wild, a Stanley Cup contender, got all it could handle from a patchwork Leafs lineup that bolted into a 3-0 lead on three second-period tallies — including two from recent callup Bo Groulx. Vladmir Tarasenko’s two goals in 23 seconds early in the third period tested Toronto’s resolve before Matthew Knies muscled his way to an empty-net goal.

Defenceman Jake McCabe blocked nine shots of the Leafs’ 28, with Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo playing one of their better games on the blueline.

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Stolarz made 36 saves to collect his first win since before the Olympic break, Feb. 3 in Edmonton.

In a stretch of 72 seconds in the second period — a frame that’s given the Leafs trouble all year — they got to Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt twice. John Tavares and Matias Maccelli set up Rielly’s top-shelf snap, a confident rush contrasting season-long struggles in his own end.

Troy Stecher then wristed a puck through traffic that was tipped by Groulx. After waiting since Nov. 7, 2021 since his previous NHL goal for Anaheim, Groulx then added his third in less than a week. He was in a perfect spot to gobble up a turnover at the blueline and put another high shot past Wallstedt.

Both teams played and lost the night before, the Wild to the Rangers, the only team behind the Leafs in the Eastern Conference and thus anxious to atone at home. But Minnesota failed to crack Stolarz in the first period, despite pressing the Leafs into turnovers deep in their zone.

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Toronto went to Stolarz after Joseph Woll’s 30 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss in Buffalo and made a couple of other changes. Ekman-Larsson, one of the few veterans remaining on the roster, went home to be with his wife for the birth of their newest child. That elevated recent scratch Stecher, while Henry Thrun was recalled from the Toronto Marlies on an emergency basis.

Up front, coach Craig Berube gave winger Steven Lorentz a reprieve after putting Michael Pezzetta in the lineup for some physicality after expressing concern the former’s 5-on-5 checking game has lapsed along with the Leafs playoff chances. Pezzetta, still sporting a shiner from a fight on his first shift in the Anaheim game, took a seat.

The Leafs, who hit the 70-point mark, play the New York Islanders on Tuesday.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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