Blue Jackets shut out Maple Leafs in Game 1 of Cup Qualifiers

Joonas Korpisalo made 28 saves for the shutout in his first NHL postseason game when the Columbus Blue Jackets defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Sunday.

The shutout was the first in the postseason for the Blue Jackets, who entered the NHL in 2000-01 and have played 32 postseason games.

"I felt pretty confident from the get-go today and I think the boys played really good in front of me, battling for me to see the puck," said Korpisalo, who has three NHL shutouts, including two in 35 starts this season. "That was awesome. That was fun today."

WATCH: [All Blue Jackets vs. Maple Leafs highlights]

Columbus coach John Tortorella named his starting goalie earlier in the day after previously referring to the choice between Korpisalo and rookie Elvis Merzlikins as "a coin toss."

"Big part of the win, not a lot of wasted motion," Tortorella said. "I thought both goalies played well. I just liked his demeanor also. We have two goalies with Elvis also. I'll say it again, we're not here playing if it's not for those two guys, so we're in a pretty good situation as far as that position is concerned."

Frederik Andersen made 34 saves for Toronto, which was shut out once in 70 games during the regular season and ranked third in the NHL in scoring (3.39 goals per game).

"They play playoff hockey, this is playoff hockey," Maple Leafs forward Zach Hyman said. "I thought we had our chances; we just couldn't capitalize. You're not going to win any games if you don't score any goals. They got one, and we couldn't get on the board."

It was the first postseason game between the Blue Jackets, the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference, and the Maple Leafs, the No. 8 seed.

Game 2 of the best-of-5 series is in Toronto, the Eastern Conference hub city, on Tuesday (4 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS, FS-O, NHL.TV). The series winner advances to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There hasn't been a best-of-5 series in the NHL since 1986. The League used them for the preliminary round of the playoffs from 1980-86, and the team that won Game 1 went on to win the series 87.5 percent of the time (49 of 56).

Maple Leafs forward Nicholas Robertson became the first 18-year-old to make his NHL debut in a postseason game since Jarome Iginla (18 years, 295 days) for the Calgary Flames on April 21, 1996 (Game 3, Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Chicago Blackhawks). Robertson, who led the Ontario Hockey League in goals this season (55), had a scoring chance on his first shift, but Korpisalo made a right-pad save on his shot at 2:05 of the first.

Cam Atkinson scored at 1:05 of the third period to give Columbus a 1-0 lead with a wrist shot from the right side under Andersen's blocker.

"I closed my eyes," Atkinson said. "I mean, I kind of knew where I wanted to shoot. I wasn't really expecting it to go in, but obviously one of those I'll take. A goal like that kind of gives me a lot of momentum and juice. I started feeling a lot better about my game after that."

Alex Wennberg made it 2-0 when he scored into an empty net with 19 seconds remaining.

"I thought we played in spurts through a lot of the game," Tortorella said. "Third period, I thought we really, especially when we had the lead, it just seemed like there was more concentration on being in the right position. There's nothing special we're doing; we're just trying to play the game the right way."

Korpisalo kept the game 0-0 with a left-glove save on Auston Matthews' one-timer from the slot at 16:16 of the second period off William Nylander's centering pass from behind the net.

"That was just a reaction," Korpisalo said. "I saw he was open in the middle just a split second before it, and I pushed over. Good shot, and I just tried to get something in front."

Andersen stretched out his left pad to make a save on Oliver Bjorkstrand's shot from the goalmouth at 17:55 of the second.

"I thought he did make some big saves, for sure," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "There [were] a few times where they got some real quality looks, he was very good on those. And there [were] some perimeter chances down the wing and stuff like that that he did a really good job of holding his ground on.

"Obviously, he misread the one in the third there that got by him, but he kept them to one goal. As far as I'm concerned, he did his job. We've got to find a way to give him some help."

NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report