Maple Leafs defeat Penguins, set record with 10th straight home win

TORONTO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs set their record with a 10th straight home victory, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 at Air Canada Centre on Saturday.

Toronto won nine in a row at home from Nov. 11-Dec. 26, 1953, and from March 6-April 7, 2007.
"We want to be real good at home and obviously we want to be real good on the road," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "I don't know why sometimes it goes better that way but obviously you want to be comfortable in your own building. It's great for the guys to come and feel good and know they have a chance to win."
WATCH: [All Penguins vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
Nazem Kadri scored twice, Morgan Rielly had three assists and Frederik Andersen made 38 saves for the Maple Leafs (40-22-7), who had lost four in a row (0-2-2). Toronto trails the Boston Bruins by seven points for second in the Atlantic Division, having played three more games.

Sidney Crosby and Patric Hornqvist scored for the Penguins (39-26-4), who had won three in a row after losing their previous three. Tristan Jarry made 12 saves on 16 shots and was pulled after the second period, and Casey DeSmith made nine saves in relief.
"We didn't give ourselves a great chance," Crosby said. "They didn't have a ton of chances, the quality of them was probably the biggest thing. We gave up some quality chances and they scored, sometimes it goes like that."
Pittsburgh trails the Washington Capitals by one point for first in the Metropolitan Division, having played one more game. Washington won 2-0 at the San Jose Sharks earlier Saturday.

Kasperi Kapanen put the Maple Leafs ahead 1-0 at 9:10 of the first period. Josh Leivo centered the puck with a no-look pass from behind the net to Tyler Bozak, who passed to Kapanen for a tap-in at the top of the goal crease.
Kadri deflected a point shot from Rielly at the right side of the net to make it 2-0 with 47 seconds remaining in the first.
Toronto made it 3-0 with a power play goal at 11:35 of the second period when Kadri put in a rebound off a shot from Mitchell Marner.
Marner put the Maple Leafs up 4-0 on the power play at 18:24 when his shot deflected off Pittsburgh forward Riley Sheahan in the slot. It was Marner's 19th goal in 69 games, matching his total from last season as a rookie (77 games). He had five goals in his first 47 games but has scored 14 in his past 22.
"You want to do better than you did the year before and help out the team," Marner said. "Coming in (this season), I just want to help this team. If that's putting up points, obviously that's what I have to do."

Brian Dumoulin had a goal disallowed with 2:04 left the second period for the Penguins because he was called for goaltender interference. It would have made it 3-1.
"I thought if there was any contact it was after the puck went in," Crosby said. "It's obviously easy to say that after you see a replay but yeah, it was a big play in the game."
Marner scored 49 seconds later.
Andersen said he felt Dumoulin made contact with him while he was in the goal crease.
"He went through the crease, right? That's what I saw," Andersen said. "There's a lot of space outside the crease, you could have stayed outside and maybe scored. But that's the rule, so."

Crosby made it 4-1 at 16:24 of the third period when he beat Andersen with a backhand in the slot. Hornqvist deflected a shot from Evgeni Malkin to make it 4-2 with 2:28 remaining.
Patrick Marleau scored into an empty net with 57 seconds remaining to make it 5-2.

Goal of the game

Kadri's goal at 11:35 of the second period.

Save of the game

Andersen's save on Derick Brassard at 14:07 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Kapanen's goal at 9:10 of the first period.

They said it

"I disagree with the call. They see it a certain way out there. I do think the call should be challengeable. It is a turning point in the game. Based on everything that I watched and saw, it looked to me like it was a good goal." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, who could not challenge the disallowed goal because a penalty was assessed on the play
"When things go bad for you, you get uncomfortable, it goes bad for longer and then suddenly you're not moving as good but he has all those things going for him now. He's an important player for us." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on forward Mitchell Marner, who has 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in his past 13 games

Need to know

Maple Leafs defenseman Nikita Zaitsev was a late scratch because of the flu. … Toronto's last home loss was 4-2 to the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 22.

What's next

Penguins: Host the Dallas Stars on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)
Maple Leafs: Host the Dallas Stars on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, FS-SW, NHL.TV)