The first ever NHL meeting between Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews failed to live up to its considerable hype.
Neither McDavid nor Matthews found the scoresheet Tuesday night, Matthews’s Toronto Maple Leafs prevailing 3-2 in overtime behind 44 saves from Frederik Andersen and two goals from Nazem Kadri, including the winner.
It was the third win in four games at home this season for the Leafs (3-4-3), who also saw Ben Smith find the scoresheet.
Edmonton, meanwhile, has dropped two in a row for the first time this year (7-2-1). Anton Lander and Darnell Nurse both scored for the club, Cam Talbot stopped 28-of-31 shots.
Tuesday marked not only the first NHL matchup between the last two No. 1 overall picks, but the first ever NHL game in Toronto for McDavid, who grew up just north of the city in Newmarket.
READ MORE: Connor McDavid vs. Auston Matthews: How similar are the NHL’s youngest superstars?
His line was burned for the first goal of the game 89 seconds into the first frame, Kadri striking for the early Leafs lead.
Though Oilers centre Mark Letestu won the defensive zone faceoff, Leafs winger Connor Brown eventually picked the puck free and found Kadri, who tapped in a shot past Talbot.
The opening frame between two hopeful Canadian franchises was hectic with 19 shots for the Oilers, the most Toronto has allowed in any period thus far.
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After hitting a pair of posts, the Oilers got on the board with 31 seconds left in the period, Lander scoring for the first time this season. The action was driven by 25-year-old fourth line fireplug Tyler Pitlick, who stole the puck behind the Toronto goal and found his linemate open in front.
McDavid played more than eight minutes in the first and the Leafs made sure to get their licks in as often as possible. Kadri shoved the Oilers captain onto the ice on the very first shift of the game and later drove him into the endboards after a whistle, which McDavid casually laughed off.
It was enough to cause a brief ruckus though with Milan Lucic trading words and shoves with his Toronto opponents.
All throughout the night Oilers coach Todd McLellan worked to get extra opportunities for McDavid, shuffling him onto three of the four Edmonton lines. That forced his counterpart, Mike Babcock, to work extra hard at ensuring that his top defensive pairing of Morgan Rielly and Nikita Zaitsev (as well as a Kadri-led matchup line) got on the ice to match up against McDavid.
The 19 year old got his chances though, rushing down the right side at one point and then flipping a backhand attempt on Andersen. McDavid had four shots on goal in nearly 23 minutes.
Matthews, meanwhile, had chances of his own after a quiet first period, including a few good opportunities on set-ups from fellow rookie and the NHL’s rookie of the month for October, William Nylander. The American centre, who finished with six shots, has been held without a point in four consecutive games.
The game itself though never quite materialized into a showdown between the two.
The hype, which saw even Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr fly in to attend, exceeded the reality. McDavid and Matthews saw the ice against one another only sparingly over two periods, though more so in the final frame.
Matthews, the first overall pick one year after McDavid, described the meeting as “just another game” on Tuesday morning.
READ MORE: Maple Leafs rookie Auston Matthews scores 4 goals in 2 periods in NHL debut
“We’ve got 82 of them this year and we’re going to play a lot of good teams, a lot of good players so it’s not like a head-to-head matchup every time you play somebody,” he said. “It’s the Maple Leafs against the Oilers tonight so you don’t really make too much of it.”
Smith put the Leafs in front 2-1 early into the second frame, fed on the play by Nikita Soshinikov, who was recalled from the team’s American Hockey League affiliate earlier in the day for his first NHL game this season. Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse lost sight of Smith as he crashed the net.
The Oilers crunched their Canadian foe in the puck possession game (59 per cent), the Leafs yielding a season-high 46 shots.
Often, Edmonton seemed intent on pelting Andersen with as many shots as possible. The 27-year-old goaltender, who has given up two goals or less in three straight starts, has settled somewhat following a rough start to his first season in Toronto.
He was beaten high glove though by a point shot from Nurse, a goal near the midway point of the third period that tied the game at two.
Kadri scored his second of the game and winner on the first shift of overtime, eluding McDavid’s pursuits before beating Talbot for the 3-2 winner. The Leafs 26-year-old top line centre now has five goals in 10 games this season. He needed 27 games and almost two months (Dec. 5) to get there last season.
His line also managed to hold McDavid off the scoreboard.
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