RALEIGH, N.C. _ It was easy to assess the Toronto Maple Leafs' 4-1 win Tuesday over the Carolina Hurricanes.
This night, in this game, the best team won.
The Canes, in their first game after a West Coast road trip, played without center Jordan Staal, still sidelined with a concussion. Power forward Micheal Ferland was back in the lineup after missing four games with a concussion, then left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury.
Canes defenseman Calvin de Haan left the ice bleeding in the first after being high-sticked by the Leafs' William Nylander. De Haan was stitched up and returned to the game. Ferland did not.
But the Canes (13-12-4) squandered four minutes of power-play time after Nylander's double minor. They did score on a second-period power play, Justin William with the goal, but couldn't beat Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen again.
Tyler Ennis scored for the Leafs in the first, banging in a rebound, and Morgan Rielly scored at 13:51 of the second for a 2-1 lead. The Leafs killed off a Canes power play _ after another Nylander penalty _ in the third, then made it 3-1 as Patrick Marleau took a pass from Nylander off the rush and beat goalie Petr Mrazek.
John Tavares, who has tormented the Canes for years, scored his 19th of the season in his 700th career game for a 4-1 lead.
The Canes beat the Leafs 5-2 on Nov. 21 at PNC Arena. But the Leafs were without Auston Matthews and Canes goalie Curtis McElhinney played with a purpose against a team that had placed him on waivers just before the season.
Mrazek faced 15 shots in the first and had one of his most acrobatic saves of the season, quickly going post to post to rob Andreas Johnsson with a right-pad stop.
The Leafs' fourth line, active much of the game, provided the first goal of the game at 8:35 of the first. Ennis, to Mrazek's left, was in position to flick in the rebound after a Frederik Gauthier shot.
The Canes then had the four minutes of power-play time after Nylander got his stick high. The passing was sluggish and the chances few, generating just two shots _ for the Canes a big opportunity lost.
The Canes won a special-teams face-off early in the second. After killing off a Dougie Hamilton tripping penalty, the Canes soon were on the power play and Williams scoring.
Sebastian Aho carried the puck to the blue line, zipping past Mitch Marner, then found Williams alone to his left. Williams beat Andersen high to the glove side and it was 1-1 and the Canes had the momentum.
A little more than a minute later, the Leafs had it back.
With Hamilton in front of Mrazek, Rielly whipped a centering pass, the puck going off Hamilton's stick and past Mrazek.
Nylander earned an assist for his first point of the season and later set up Marleau's score off the rush.
Hamilton, who could little right this night, had a minus-4 rating for the game.
