Nicholas Robertson and William Nylander each scored twice, Anthony Stolarz earned his 10th career shutout and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets 5-0 on Saturday night.
Stolarz made 27 saves to earn his second shutout of the season as the Maple Leafs (47-25-4, 98 points) tightened their grip on first place in the Atlantic Division. They lead the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning by four points.
Auston Matthews also scored for Toronto and Morgan Rielly added two assists.
Elvis Merzlikins stopped 22 shots for Columbus. The Blue Jackets trail the Montreal Canadiens by six points for the second wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference.
The Blue Jackets (34-32-9, 77 points) swirled around the Maple Leafs’ zone for long stretches early in the first period. The Maple Leafs did a good job of jamming the middle, forcing Columbus to take shots from the perimeter for the most part.
Toronto capitalized on Columbus defenseman Zach Werenski’s errant pass in the defensive zone to take the lead at 10:03 of the first. Pontus Holmberg passed to Robertson, who scored from the slot.
Columbus had won the first two meetings 6-2 and 5-1 but in this game, Toronto was playing tighter defensively.
The Maple Leafs took a 2-0 lead when Robertson was unchecked when the puck came to him. Max Domi had knocked it away at the Columbus blue line to halt the start of a Blue Jackets rush.
The Maple Leafs took over in the third period. They padded the lead on Nylander’s goal at 1:11 of the third on a shot from the left circle that fooled Merzlikins. Nylander had pounced on the rebound of Rielly’s shot.
Nylander took advantage of a sloppy Columbus line change to score at 4:21 of the third on a 36-foot wrist shot.
After James van Riemsdyk hit the post for Columbus, Matthews scored at 16:27 of the third.
–Field Level Media
