HC Craig Berube makes his feelings known about Maple Leafs' thumping 6-3 win over Carolina Hurricanes

By Ankit Kumar

Modified Feb 23, 2025 14:38 GMT

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Craig Berube spoke to the media after Saturday's Toronto Maple Leafs' 6-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Star players Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander returned to action after participating in the 4 Nations tournament.

"I liked a lot of our game. We had a really good first and built the lead," Berube said. "They made a push in the second, but I thought we did a lot of good things."

Toronto started strong, building a 4-0 lead. Alex Steeves opened the scoring at 2:50 of the first period. Pontus Holmberg made it 2-0 just 39 seconds later. David Kampf pushed the lead to 3-0 before John Tavares added another goal.

"The third period was a lot of the same. I thought we probably backed up a little bit too much in the third and let them come at us," Berube said.

"We get the 4-on-4 situation, and they pull their goalie. They made it interesting there; they are good at that, and we have seen them do it numerous times. They are going to come regardless of the score and put pressure on you."

Carolina made a late push in the third period, scoring three goals in 2:41. Shayne Gostisbehere, Andrei Svechnikov and Jaccob Slavin all scored. This cut Toronto's lead to 4-3 with more than four minutes left.

Despite Carolina's push, the Maple Leafs held on. Matthews scored an empty-net goal with 1:23 left, making it 5-3. Holmberg added another empty-netter with 20 seconds remaining to make it 6-3.

Berube added:

"In the third, I’d like to see our team a little bit more aggressive up ice and not backing in so much."

Craig Berube talked about Maple Leafs' forwards Matthews and Marner

Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews' empty-net goal was his 389th career goal, tying Darryl Sittler for second-most in the team's history. He is now 31 goals behind Mats Sundin, who leads the franchise with 420.

Craig Berube talked about the Leafs leaning on Matthews and Mitch Marner late in the game.

"That is part of their job, right? They have to be in that situation," Berube said. "When they made it 4-on-4, I knew they were pulling their goalie, so our penalty killers were going to be out there."

The Maple Leafs improved their record to 34-20-2 and are now one point behind the Atlantic Division leaders Florida Panthers.