- Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves on 36 shots in a 3-2 Maple Leafs loss to the Mammoth
- Nick Schmaltz scored the winner on the power play after a Bobrovsky pad save
- Read below for what Jim Hiller and Auston Matthews said about the loss
Sergei Bobrovsky did his part Tuesday. The Maple Leafs didn’t, and they lost 3-2 to the Utah Mammoth at Scotiabank Arena.
Bobrovsky stopped 33 of 36 shots in the first game of a six-game homestand. That came a few days after he gave up five goals on 17 shots in Seattle, a night that turned into a full week of questions about his play. This time he kept Toronto in it long enough to have a shot at the points.
Nick Schmaltz scored the winner at 13:12 of the third period on the power play. Bobrovsky stretched to make a pad save on Clayton Keller’s one-timer, but the rebound sat in the crease and Schmaltz poked it in. Darren Raddysh took a cross-checking penalty away from the play to set it up.
Hiller was asked about Raddysh’s penalty after the game.
“I think he knows pretty clearly,” Hiller said. “I haven’t seen that happen over and over again. That’s a one-off I guess in his case. He said he didn’t like the penalty and took it on himself, he understands that. That’s hockey.”
Hiller also explained why Toronto didn’t challenge Utah’s second goal. Andrew Peeke scored it at 13:42 of the second period while Barrett Hayton made contact with Bobrovsky’s skate.
“Bobrovsky was in the white (ice) but he got wiped right out,” Hiller said. “The rule is tricky to interpret, it really is. We went through it, we’ve seen a lot of these, and we decided that because he was in the white, we weren’t going to challenge.”
Jack Roslovic scored twice for Toronto and has points in a career-high seven straight games. Auston Matthews had two assists, but he said the team didn’t have its legs early.
“There’s no excuses,” Matthews said. “It doesn’t matter with the schedule, the travel, the time change and all that. You have to come ready to play, regardless.”
The loss leaves Bobrovsky stuck on 459 career wins, tied with Henrik Lundqvist for sixth on the all-time list. He was one win away from passing Lundqvist heading into the night.
It also follows the vote of confidence from the front office. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun shared GM John Chayka’s comments last Thursday, and we covered Chayka’s message on Bobrovsky at the time:
Toronto is 8-7-2 and has gone 1-3-0 in its last four. The Leafs have five more games on this homestand.
