Marleau pushes Leafs by Ducks
ANAHEIM, Calif -- Frederik Andersen stopped 28 shots against his former team and Patrick Marleau scored the game-winning goal at 1:09 of the third period as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 on Wednesday night.
Andersen, who spent his first three seasons in Anaheim, won for the second time in six games and allowed one goal or less for the second time this season.
Marleau scored his 513st career goal after capitalizing on a turnover by Anaheim defenseman Jaycob Megna in the right corner. The Leafs moved the puck near to the point to defenseman Ron Hainsey, whose shot was stopped by Anaheim goaltender John Gibson.
Stationed in front of the net, Marleau swept a backhander by Gibson. It was his 31st career goal against the Ducks and 100th career game-winning goal.
Hainsey added a pair of assists for Toronto (8-5-0), which snapped a three-game losing streak and won for just the second time in six games.
The Ducks (6-5-1) came close to tying the game with 98 seconds left in the third period but Jakob Silfverberg's goal was disallowed as it was ruled to be kicked into the net with a distinct kicking motion.
The Maple Leafs opened the scoring at 7:54 of the first period as Connor Brown converted a James van Riemsdyk tape to tape pass and put it between the legs of Gibson for his fourth of the season and a 1-0 Toronto lead.
Toronto's lead was short-lived.
Just seventy-five seconds later, Ondrej Kase's centering pass went off the skate of Toronto defenseman, Andreas Borgman and past Andersen for his fifth of the season at 9:09.
Leo Komarov would add an empty-net goal his second of the season at 18:30 of the third period to seal the victory.
Marleau set up Komarov's empty-netter to cap his second multi-goal game since signing with Toronto in free agency.
NOTES: Toronto's 21 first-period goals lead the NHL. ... Toronto scratched C Dominic Moore, RW Kasperi Kapanen and D Roman Polak. ... Anaheim placed C Ryan Getzlaf (facial injury) on injured reserve. ... Anaheim recalled C Kalle Kossila Ducks scratched G Reto Berra, D Korbinian Holzer and RW Jared Boll. ... Prior to the game, there was a moment of silence in recognition of the victims and first responders of Tuesday's terror attacks in New York City.