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The unsung heroes came out to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Bobby McMann scored two goals and added an assist, while Pontus Holmberg scored two goals of his own en route to a 6-3 victory over Connor McDavid and the Oilers on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena.

“That was pretty sweet, playing the Edmonton Oilers, watching them grow up.” McMann, the Wainwright, Alta. product, he said. “It was a special one.”

Coming into Saturday, the game seemed to be all about McDavid and Auston Matthews as the two star forwards looked to put themselves in the history books this season in different categories.

McDavid is looking to become just the fourth different player – and the first since Wayne Gretzky in 1990-91 – to record 100 assists. He is now on pace for 108 assists with 89 through 66 games. He now has more assists this season than Jamie Benn had, 87, when he won the Art Ross Trophy in 2013-14.

Meanwhile, his American counterpart is looking to become the first player to score 70 goals in a regular season since Teemu Selane and Alexander Mogilny both scored 76 in 1992-93. After tonight’s shutout, he is now on pace for 69 with 13 games left on the Leafs schedule.

“They’re going to define this generation of players with their skill set, how they’ve impacted the game,” Leafs captain John Tavares said following practice on March 22 about McDavid and Matthews. “They change the game in many ways. Very special.”

It was the Oilers who came out of the gates pressing the Leafs off the opening draw. Their quick attack led to a Matthew Knies tripping penalty which put the league’s second best power play percentage to work against 25th place from the spot.

Despite threatening on the man advantage following, the Oilers couldn’t put anything past Leafs netminder Ilya Samsonov.

“I thought our guys competed hard tonight,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Our penalty kill gave us life in the game.”

The Leafs netminder finished with 34 saves before he had to leave the game after going down with an injury following Edmonton’s third goal. Samsonov stretched to his right in an attempt to block a shot from Leon Draisaitl before staying down on the ice for an extended period – he needed help to get to the locker room.

“We hate to see it, so hopefully it’s nothing big or serious and he’ll bounce back quickly,” Tavares said. “It was great again tonight for us.”

Keefe said Samsonov would be “fine.”

“It’s nowhere near what it seemed or what I thought it might be,” he said.

McMann opened the scoring for the Leafs with his 12th goal of the season less than five minutes into the first frame. Facing the end boards, Tavares found McMann free in the slot with a backhand pass and made no mistake putting it past Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner.

McMann was on Toronto’s second line alongside William Nylander and Tavares as a result of some missing bodies in the Leafs lineup. Toronto was without Mitch Marner due to a high ankle sprain, Calle Jarnkrok due to a hand injury and Tyler Bertuzzi with an illness.

“They loaded their first line and we said, ‘We want our depth to carry us through,'” McMann said.

Unlike the Oilers, the Leafs found the back of the net on their first man-advantage opportunity. William Nylander took Timothy Liljegren’s pass shot home from the point to double the lead with less than two minutes to go in the period.

Liljegren secured his second point of the night on goal and now has 14 in his last 16.

“We didn’t take advantage of early opportunities in the first and that set us back,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We failed to score on two power plays and they scored on theirs and it snowballed from there.”

As the Oilers searched for the answer in the second, Samsonov stayed firmly in his net to keep the visitors free. Just before five minutes of the period, the Leafs goalkeeper brought the Toronto crowd to their feet as he flashed the leather on a shot by Oilers defender, Brett Kulak.

Soon after, the Leafs rewarded their netminder with another goal. Holmberg buried it behind Skinner off a nice passing play between Matthews, Max Domi and himself. Matthews came away with the puck off the boards before handing it to Domi who then sent it to a wide open Holmberg who had a gaping cage.

The Leafs didn’t stop pouring on there.

Less than three minutes later, Holmberg netted his second of the night off a pass from McMann while on a three-on-one rush. McMann then extended the lead to five after ripping a shot into the top corner and past Skinner from the right faceoff dot. Skinner was then pulled in favor of backup Calvin Pickard at the end of the second period after giving up five goals on 23 shots.

“Bobby has been excellent,” Keefe said. “He finished some great plays again tonight.”

As the Leafs defended their five-goal lead in the third period, Samsonov shouted “Sammy!” chanted by the crowd as he continued to hold down the fort. However, after nearly 45 minutes, the Oilers finally broke through the Leafs goalie.

Zach Hyman squeaked the puck into the back of the net to put him one goal shy of the 50 goal landmark.

The Oilers then began trying to come back soon after with goals from Corey Perry and Leon Draisaitl. However, Matthews’ empty netter with 12 seconds remaining sealed the deal as the Leafs take on the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Sunday at 6 pm

“When we make those decisions to play like that and compete like that we’re hard to beat in that beat in that room,” Keefe said. “We can do great things.”

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