The Toronto Maple Leafs will try to keep their momentum going and take a 2-1 lead in the Stanley Cup First Round against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
The Maple Leafs evened the best-of-7 series with a 5-1 win in Game 2 at home Saturday after losing 2-1 in Game 1 in Toronto. They dedicated the victory to captain John Tavares, who sustained a concussion and knee injury in Game 1 and will be out of the lineup at least two weeks.
Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe called on the rest of his team to step up in Tavares' absence, and center Auston Matthews led the way when he scored three points (one goal, two assists), won 16 of 20 face-offs and had four hits, three takeaways and 10 shot attempts.
Defenseman Zach Bogosian said Matthews' performance was inspiring and will motivate the Maple Leafs heading into Games 3 and 4, which will be held on back-to-back nights at Bell Centre in Montreal.
"Any time you have a superstar like that who is playing a full 200-foot game, who's playing physical … he has proven that he is a pure goal-scorer and he's going to score huge goals for us," Bogosian said. "But to see him physically engaged, he's a big dude (6-foot-3, 220 pounds), and when he plays that intense, it bleeds into the group."
Rookie forward Cole Caufield will make his Stanley Cup Playoff debut for the Canadiens in Game 3. The 20-year-old, who was a healthy scratch in the first two games of the series, scored five points (four goals, one assist) in 10 games during the regular season.
"We like Cole. He's going to be one of 18 guys who will be skating tonight, and we want to be at our best," Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme said.
Teams that win Game 3 when tied 1-1 are 223-107 (67.6 percent) winning a best-of-7 NHL playoff series, including 3-1 in the first round last season.
Here are three keys for Game 3: