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Maple Leafs defeat Coyotes, win their fifth straight

Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak

Don’t look now, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are on a five-game winning streak.

Yes. The Maple Leafs were outshot badly, which has happened many times this season. They got stellar goaltending from Jonathan Bernier, who made 39 saves, and defeated the Phoenix Coyotes by a final of 4-2 on Monday night.

In this streak, they’ve exorcised some of the demons from last year’s playoff collapse by defeating the Bruins in Boston, and put together a solid effort in beating one of their most storied historical rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, in front of a national television audience on Hockey Night in Canada.

“We’ve found out that winning is fun,” said Leafs defenseman Jake Gardiner, as per Chris Johnston of Sportsnet.

Gardiner had a two-point night, opening the scoring in the first period. The Leafs jumped out to a three-goal lead after two periods, with Carl Gunnarsson scoring his first of the season. It also turned out to be the winner.

This streak happens to fall immediately after a four-game losing skid, in which the Leafs were outscored a total of 21-7 in that span. Yikes. That losing skid was part of a greater, overall struggle since the beginning of November.

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