Maple Leafs score two shorthanded goals, defeat Devils

TORONTO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs scored two shorthanded goals to win their first game since acquiring defenseman Mark Giordano, 3-2 against the New Jersey Devils at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

Giordano, who was traded with forward Colin Blackwell by the Seattle Kraken on Sunday, did not score a point in 18:35 of ice time in his Maple Leafs debut. A Toronto native, Giordano had three hits and two blocked shots.
"It felt great. It was a hard-fought game obviously, a tight game," Giordano said. "We had to stay patient, but obviously our penalty kill was a difference with those two huge goals.
"I felt good all day, I felt excited. I remember coming here when I was a young guy and all the nerves; I had some nerves today, but not really. I felt really excited, and I loved the way we played. It was an aggressive style and it was fun to play."

Pierre Engvall scored the go-ahead goal shorthanded in the third period, and Petr Mrazek made 20 saves for the Maple Leafs (40-18-5) in his first start since the 2022 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic on March 13. He backed up Erik Kallgren in each of Toronto's previous three games and cleared waivers Monday.
"Two points, it feels good. Always important," Mrazek said. "I felt really comfortable. I felt I was in the game all game, focusing on the things I can control, and that's the reason we won."
Nico Hischier had a goal and an assist, and Nico Daws made 28 saves for the Devils (23-36-5), who were playing the second of a back to back after a 7-4 win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
"We defended well, we knew we were coming off back to back, wanted to play the game the right way and limit the opportunities by their top players," New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. "I thought we had
[Auston] Matthews
at bay 5-on-5, tried to keep them frustrated. We've played this song before this team, I thought we were through this with special teams. We took a step back.
"We've been down the path of giving up shorthanded goals at bad times and not taking advantage of power plays to win games. To have a night like tonight is just a painful reminder that if you don't pay attention to every detail, you can call it stupid, careless, irresponsible, call it whatever you want, but if you are going to win a hockey game and you have a four-minute power play to take advantage of that, we didn't get it done."

Engvall scored shorthanded at 15:18 of the third period when he shot past Daws' glove from the edge of the right face-off circle to make it 3-2. His goal came with Toronto forward Ilya Mikheyev serving a four-minute penalty for high sticking at 12:23 of the third.
Damon Severson scored on the power play at 5:03 of the second period when his attempted pass went off a sprawling
Ilya Lyubushkin
in the slot and between Mrazek's pads to give the Devils a 1-0 lead, but Mikheyev tied it 1-1 at 12:30 on a shorthanded breakaway.
The Maple Leafs lead the NHL with 10 shorthanded goals.
"It was the game, (the shorthanded goals)," Ruff said. "Our 5-on-5 play, I thought we had them frustrated and we limited their top guys, but the couple plays we made 5-on-4 absolutely killed us. Stupid careless mistakes."

Hischier gave New Jersey a 2-1 lead at 13:56 when he jammed in a loose puck in the goal crease, but Mitchell Marner responded for Toronto 58 seconds later at 14:54 on a one-timer from Matthews to make it 2-2.
Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe, who put Giordano in the starting lineup, said he was very impressed with his debut.
"You talk about his comfort level, my comfort level was high when he was out there," Keefe said. " … You can just tell he's a veteran, he knows how to play. Despite coming in, new teammates, new city, new system, he was just confident, moved pucks, defended, got in peoples' way. I really liked his play tonight."
NOTES: Hischier has four straight multipoint games (two goals, six assists). … Devils forward Jack Hughes has scored five points (three goals, two assists) in his past four games. … Marner's goal was his 27th, an NHL career high. … Matthews had an assist for his 80th point this season, tying his NHL career high (2019-20). He is the third player in Maple Leafs history to score 80 points within his first 58 games of a season, joining Doug Gilmour (1992-93, 1993-94) and Darryl Sittler (1977-78).