“Something the coaching staff talks about a lot is just grinding games out, being very comfortable in these types of games and these situations,” Tavares said. “Stay patient and earn your opportunities. Being able to grab the lead was really huge, especially going into the third. Not sitting back but we were definitely making sure they had to come through all five of us, have to play 200-foot and use a lot of energy to get up and down the ice.”
Mitch Marner scored and had an assist to extend his point streak to seven games, Morgan Rielly had two assists and Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves for the Maple Leafs (8-5-2), who have won two in a row.
“[Mitch] does a lot for us, defensively and penalty killing he’s been excellent,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “He’s a guy that reads the play really well, anticipates, breaks plays up with his stick. There’s a lot of good there with him [lately] all around.”
Dylan Larkin scored, and Cam Talbot made 17 saves for the Red Wings (6-6-1), who had won their previous two.
“It was probably a low-event type game,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “Not many chances given up. We were unable to execute in some situations. It’s going to be a frustrating result in the fact, you know, you don't give a 5-on-5 goal, you don't execute in some situations.”
“There's a missed opportunity. This was an opportunity to take some points here in a tough building, and we were unable to execute in some situations.”
Tavares put the Maple Leafs up 2-1 at 11:01 of the second period on the power play. After Marner’s initial pass was disrupted by J.T. Compher, Tavares got to the loose puck in the slot, turned and shot over Talbot’s glove.