Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks skates with the puck ahead of Martin Hanzal of the Phoenix Coyotes during the third period of the NHL game at Jobing.com Arena on Monday in Glendale, Arizona. The Sharks defeated the Coyotes 4-0. (AFP)
Agencies/Toronto
James Reimer made 31 saves, and Phil Kessel snapped a scoreless tie late in the third period to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 2-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Monday.
Kessel broke the deadlock with a power-play goal at 13:28 of the third, and Jay McClement scored into an empty net with 36.6 seconds remaining to back the stellar goaltending of Reimer, who earned his third shutout of the season.
Toronto (24-14-5), aiming for its first postseason berth since 2004, is 9-1-4 in its past 14 games.
The Devils (15-17-10) lost for the 10th straight time (0-6-4) and were blanked for a second consecutive game, following their 2-0 home defeat to Ottawa on Friday. They haven’t won since star forward Ilya Kovalchuk was injured.
New Jersey, the defending Eastern Conference champion, is in 11th place - six points below the postseason cutoff with only six games left.
Reimer kept the Maple Leafs in the game until Kessel scored with a quick shot that beat goalie Martin Brodeur short side.
After a scoreless first two periods, Reimer took over the game midway through the third. He stopped Adam Henrique with a great pad save, and after New Jersey’s Andy Greene hit the post, Reimer robbed Patrik Elias from in tight.
After the Maple Leafs recorded just five shots through two periods, Dion Phaneuf put Toronto’s sixth on net early in the third, eliciting sarcastic cheers from the home crowd.
James van Riemsdyk then fired a shot from the slot that Brodeur stopped with his glove.
Coming off a 5-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, the Maple Leafs didn’t register a shot until just after the seven-minute mark of a sluggish opening period.
The Devils carried much of the play in the opening 20 minutes, outshooting Toronto 9-3. The three shots tied the Maple Leafs’ lowest output in a period this season, which came in a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Jan 26.
Toronto set a new mark for shot futility with only two in the second period as the Devils played their usual tight-checking style against a Maple Leafs lineup that wasn’t able to match New Jersey’s desperation.
Meanwhile, Scott Hartnell registered his seventh career hat-trick while captain Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek each recorded a goal and two assists as visiting Philadelphia halted their four-game losing streak.
Wayne Simmonds had a goal and an assist for the Flyers, who recorded a total of three goals during their slide.
Max Pacioretty scored and set up a goal for Montreal, still one point ahead of Boston for first place in the Northeast Division.
Andrew Shaw scored to snap a tie 4:31 into the third period and captain Jonathan Toews recorded his 10th goal in 15 contests as hosts Chicago skated to their sixth straight victory.