Dennis Hildeby made 29 saves for the first shutout of his NHL career as the Toronto Maple Leafs blanked the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0 on Monday night.
Morgan Rielly and Auston Matthews, into the empty net, scored for Toronto (14-11-4), which improved to 4-0-1 over its last five games.
Jonas Johansson stopped 22 shots for Tampa Bay (16-11-2). The Lightning have dropped four straight in regulation after winning seven in a row.
Hildeby, who started the season as the Maple Leafs’ No. 4 goaltending option, got another start with both Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll on injured reserve.
The Lightning had centre Brayden Point and winger Nikita Kucherov back in the lineup from injury absences, but were minus No. 1 goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. Point missed seven games with an undisclosed injury, while Kucherov sat out Saturday’s 2-0 home loss to the New York Islanders.
Tampa Bay has now been shut out in consecutive games for the first time since November 2023.
