Maple Leafs at Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings have had to rally for huge victories in their last two games and hope to make things easier on themselves when the league-worst Toronto Maple Leafs visit on Sunday. The Red Wings came back from two goals down to beat Winnipeg on Thursday before tying the game late in regulation and beating the New York Rangers in overtime on Saturday.
Detroit took over the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with Saturday’s win, which came at a cost as top-pair defenseman Niklas Kronwall suffered a lower-body injury and is doubtful for Toronto. The Red Wings knocked off the Maple Leafs twice earlier this season while allowing just one goal and have limited their last two opponents to 25 shots each. Toronto had a 29-17 edge in shots Saturday, but went 0-for-4 on the power play and dropped a 4-0 decision at Ottawa. The injury-depleted Maple Leafs have won just three times in 17 games since starting February with back-to-back victories.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, CBC, TVAS2
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (22-34-11): The line of rookie Nikita Soshnikov, Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov each finished with a minus-3 rating against the Senators on Saturday. Kadri leads the team with 37 points – one ahead of Komarov – and Soshnikov has impressed along with Zach Hyman and William Nylander since their recall on Feb. 29. Garret Sparks has started the last three games in net for the Leafs, going 1-1-1, and Jonathan Bernier (7-18-3) is expected to get the start on Sunday.
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (34-23-11): Brad Richards got the tying goal with 31.8 seconds left with the goalie pulled Saturday and Darren Helm scored his second goal of the day on a deflection in overtime. Captain Henrik Zetterberg has assists in two straight games and leads the team with 43 points while rookie Dylan Larkin is next with 40, but has just one point (goal) in the last nine contests. Power forward Justin Abdelkader has picked up his production of late with four points in the past three outings.
OVERTIME
1. The Red Wings have allowed seven power-play goals in the last five games after a stretch in which they were 17-for-17 over six contests.
2. Toronto D Rinat Valiev became the ninth player to make his NHL debut for the team this season when he played 14:23 on Saturday.
3. Richards, who is slated to play his 1,113th game, is three away from 300 goals in his career after his tally on Saturday.