Overview
- Toronto improved to 4-0-1 in its past five games after Morgan Rielly opened the scoring and Auston Matthews sealed it with an empty-netter.
- Dennis Hildeby stopped 29 shots for his first NHL shutout, starting again with Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll on injured reserve.
- Tampa Bay lost its fourth straight and was blanked for a second consecutive game, with Jonas Johansson starting as Andrei Vasilevskiy sits on injured reserve despite the returns of Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.
- Leafs defenseman Dakota Mermis left in the third period following a knee-on-knee hit by Gage Goncalves, who received a five-minute major and game misconduct, with Mermis’s status awaiting evaluation.
- Head coach Craig Berube scratched Nicholas Robertson in favor of Calle Jarnkrok for penalty-kill help, and said Chris Tanev is skating in a no-contact jersey with a midweek evaluation expected.