The Canadian Press
Kyle Cicerella
TORONTO–Being a backup goalie isn’t always easy. But Toronto’s Curtis McElhinney thinks he’s figured it out.
One night after starter Frederik Andersen beat Pittsburgh on the road, McElhinney stopped 41 shots to lead the Maple Leafs to a 1-0 win over the visiting Edmonton Oilers yesterday.
The 34-year-old was making just his fifth start of the season, with Andersen currently leading the NHL in minutes played.
“The back-to-backs are always tough,” said McElhinney. “Sometimes there’s no morning skate so you’re kinda left to your own.
“I got a good skate in this morning by myself and things felt pretty good overall.
“Having been here almost a year now, I’m pretty familiar with it,” he added.
“I kinda have the hang of it, I think.”
Zach Hyman scored the only goal of the game just 34 seconds into the contest.
After that, it was all McElhinney as Edmonton hemmed Toronto (20-10-1) in its own zone for the final two periods looking for the equalizer.
In all, the Oilers had an 89-47 advantage in shot attempts, including 61-39 at even strength, and beat the Toronto netminder more than once only to ring iron.
“Sometimes you get lucky,” said McElhinney. “Tonight I think there were four [that hit the post].”
“He’s a veteran guy who does his job,” Hyman said about his goalie.
“Great win for us and great win for him. He couldn’t have played better.”
Laurent Brossoit made 22 saves for the Oilers (12-16-2), who had beaten the Canadiens 6-2 in Montreal a night earlier.
“We played a lot of games this season and haven’t been able to string them back-to-back,” noted Oilers’ coach Todd McLellan.
“This was a solid, solid effort on our behalf.
“We didn’t win, obviously that’s the most obvious thing, but we’re happy with our game,” he noted.
Toronto’s Auston Matthews missed the game with an upper-body injury after being a game-time decision.
Josh Leivo took his spot in the lineup.
Leafs’ coach Mike Babcock said he thought the 20-year-old would be good to go against Edmonton but listened to his team’s medical staff.
He’s optimistic Matthews will be healthy enough to return to the lineup by tomorrow when Toronto faces Philadelphia.
The Leafs are 5-0-0 without their top centre in the lineup this season.
“I think he’ll be ready to go, but I’m not 100 percent sure so we’ll see what the trainers [say],” Babcock noted.
“We expected him here tonight. It will be on how he feels.”
Edmonton was handed a glorious chance to tie the game with 2:22 to go in the second, coming away with a full two-minute 5-on-3.
But any shot they created was turned aside by McElhinney or hit post.
Edmonton kept Toronto hemmed in its zone for an entire penalty kill early in the third but again couldn’t score–with McDavid ringing the crossbar one more time.
Elsewhere in the NHL, Minnesota edged San Jose 4-3 (OT), Chicago beat Arizona 3-1, and St. Louis nipped Buffalo 3-2 (OT).
