Marner has hat trick, Maple Leafs recover against Kraken in shootout
Scores winner in tiebreaker, Woll stops 37; McCann gets 2 goals for Seattle
By
Dave McCarthy
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
It was Marner’s second hat trick in the NHL.
“Obviously it feels really good,” Marner said. “Like I’ve been saying, I haven’t been happy with my own gameplay, I thought I haven’t been my best. I’ve helped this team win enough games playing my best to have an impact on games. I felt good tonight, moving my feet, getting pucks in the right places and making plays off it, and at the same time not forcing stuff, being smart with my pucks.”
Auston Matthews had two assists, and Joseph Woll made 37 saves in his third straight start for the Maple Leafs (12-6-3), who are 6-1-1 in their past eight games. It was Toronto’s second consecutive shootout win following a 2-1 victory against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
“It’s a tough league,” Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. “Every night is challenging. Every team has skill and size and speed, and all the rest of it. If we get two points, we’re happy. Ultimately, if you have the lead in the third you want to be able to close it out, but we will take those points all day.”
Jared McCann scored twice, and Philipp Grubauer made 25 saves for the Kraken (8-10-6), who have lost three straight (0-2-1). Seattle played without forward Jaden Schwartz, who was placed on injured reserve on Thursday because of a lower-body injury.
“We lost a point in a shootout,” Kraken coach Dave Hakstol said. “We were the better team tonight; I call it as I see it. If we don’t play well, I’ll let you know, and I think I do that pretty honestly. We played really well tonight. We were the better team and I thought we deserved a better outcome. It’s disappointing to lose in the shootout.”
Marner gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 6:34 of the first period on the power play after taking a pass from William Nylander and shooting past a sprawling Grubauer at the side of the net.
Marner made it 2-0 just 21 seconds into the second period when he one-timed a pass from Matthews from just above the left face-off dot.
McCann cut it to 2-1 at 3:37 on the power play, scoring high blocker side on Grubauer from the top of the left circle.
Marner completed the hat trick to make it 3-1 at 16:01 when he took a pass from Jake McCabe in the neutral zone and scored on the breakaway. The Kraken outshot the Maple Leafs 17-7 in the second period.
“It was unbelievable,” Woll said of Marner’s performance. “That’s a heck of a game by him. He put the team on his back scoring three goals and then getting the game-winner in the shootout, it’s pretty fitting… You see your big-time players step up and make big-time plays, it’s awesome.”
Eeli Tolvanen made it 3-2 at 6:15 of the third period after cutting in and scoring glove side from the right face-off dot.
“I think we played really well,” Tolvanen said. “I think that was one of the best 60, 65 minutes we played so far this season. I felt like everybody was on their game today. We were down two goals going into the third and you saw everybody putting the effort in and everybody wanted to come back.”
McCann tied it 3-3 at 13:24 when he took a pass from Alex Wennberg, who was in the right-wing corner, and scored on a wrist shot from the left circle.
“We don’t want to give up that third-period lead,” Marner said. “We’re a team that wants to be in that position a lot, and wants to be a lot better in that position. Good things all around, but you don’t want to give up those two-goal leads, especially in the third.
“Seems like we have everything pretty locked down, doing things well. I just think we can’t be timid; we can’t be sitting back on our heels. We’re a team that, when we are playing our best, is attacking on the forecheck still.”
Woll stopped Jordan Eberle on a point-blank shot with 36 seconds left in overtime to help force the shootout.
“It was kind of a weird broken play type of thing,” Woll said. “I was just trying to do everything I can to throw whatever I can in front of it.”
NOTES: Rielly played his 740th NHL game, passing Bob Baun for fourth among defenseman in Maple Leafs franchise history... Toronto played without defenseman Mark Giordano, who is week to week after sustaining a broken finger in the first period against the Panthers on Tuesday... Kraken forward Marian Studenic had one shot on goal in 9:53 in his season debut after being recalled from Coachella Valley of the American Hockey League on Tuesday.
