Watch: Ryan Reaves knocks down Michael Pezzetta with heavy right blows in Leafs-Canadiens showdown

By ARJUN B

Modified Apr 08, 2024 11:14 GMT

Ryan Reaves was the center of attention when things got heated between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. During the second period, Canadiens forward Michael Pezzetta delivered a big hit on Leafs center David Kampf.

This did not sit well with Toronto enforcer Reaves, who immediately came to his teammate's defense. Ryan Reaves challenged Pezzetta to a fight, and the two dropped the gloves in a heavyweight tilt.

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As soon as the fight started, both players seemed ready but once Ryan Reaves got control, he landed several right hands to Pezzetta's head. The Canadiens forward tried to fight back but was overmatched. Reaves stands at 6-foot-2 and 226 pounds, while Pezzetta is 6-foot-1 and 216 pounds.

Pezzetta lost his balance and fell to the ice, but Reaves continued to hold him down, forcing officials to step in and break it up.

As he skated to the penalty box, Ryan Reaves taunted the Canadiens bench, clearly fired up after defending his teammate.

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The 37-year-old enforcer has five points in 44 games this season with 44 penalty minutes.

The Leafs defeated the Canadiens 4-2, improving their record versus Montreal to 3-0 on the season.

Ryan Reaves's Maple Leafs' 4-2 win over the Canadiens

The Leafs took a fast lead only 2:21 into the second period when Max Domi redirected Ilya Lyubushkin's point shot. Matthews made it 2-0 only 17 seconds later, scoring on a centering pass that rebounded off David Savard's skate. The Maple Leafs supporters in attendance roared as Matthews scored his 64th goal.

Rookie Matthew Knies extended the Toronto lead to 3-0 at 7:30 of the second with his third career NHL goal. Bobby McMann made it 4-0 Leafs on a beautiful individual effort, snapping a shot past Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault.

Montreal finally got on the board on the power play at 9:05 when Nick Suzuki finished off a slick behind-the-back pass from rookie Juraj Slafkovsky. Then, Cole Caufield buried a feed from Mike Matheson to cut the deficit to 4-2.

Matthews is currently on pace for 69 goals, just one shy of Alex Ovechkin's 65 goals in 2007–08 for the most in a season since the early 1990s. No player has reached 70 goals since Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny scored 76 apiece in 1992–93.

Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault was pulled after allowing four goals on just 12 shots. Backup Cayden Primeau stopped all 18 shots in relief. Montreal was missing key defensemen Kaiden Guhle and Arber Xhekaj due to injury.