LEAFS LOSE IN OVERTIME

It was a game of good puck management, and both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes had their share of good control and sloppy puck movement. In the end, the Hurricanes prevailed 5-4 in overtime, with just a brief moment of good puck control.

The strength of the first period was all the Hurricanes needed as they jumped out to an early 4-1 lead. Three of the first four goals were scored in the first six minutes of the game. Those good twenty minutes just held up and led them to overtime.

Those extra five minutes weren’t even in the cards for the Maple Leafs, because they were absolutely outplayed to open the game, and their puck management was horrible. Just like they have done so, so often this season, they mounted a comeback after being down 3-0 and 4-1. This team loves playing with fire, and most of the time, they battle the fire with a good fight.

If you look at the overall game, the Leafs should’ve deserved the two points because they played 40 strong minutes compared to Carolina’s twenty. The Leafs out-shot the Hurricanes 42-24 and wouldn’t let them gain the offensive zone at all in the second period and parts of the third.

What spelled the loss for the Maple Leafs was their defensive point play which was lacking. Three of the five goals by Carolina, came off of plays from the point. The eventual game winner in overtime came off a slap shot from the point off the stick of Niclas Wallin, which all began with good puck management.

For Carolina, all the credit should go to goalie Cam Ward, if not for his team’s bad defence, the score could’ve been 4-1 for the Hurricanes. Cam Ward played a superb game and was peppered with plenty of shots, but was up to the task. He was the deciding factor in this game.

As for Vesa Toskala, he could’ve been better, especially in the first, because he was not sharp at all and it showed. On Carolina’s third goal of the game, it came off a purposely missed point shot that hit the end boards, and bounced out to an open player with an open net. Toskala looked like a fool and was badly out of position, and completely misplayed the whole set up. He did make saves when the team needed it the most.

The bulk of the Leafs scoring came from the line of Niklas Hagman, Nik Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski, who had seven point combined on the night. Grabovski had two goals, plus the one to tie the game, and now has back to back games where he has at least scored twice in each game. Hagman had the other goal, which was the first for the Leafs. Mike Van Ryn was the other goal scorer for the Leafs.

Even though the Leafs were good offensively, and well enough to win on most nights, they still showed some weaknesses. The offense gave up too many odd man rushes the other way and got scored on twice on those rushes. The problem for concern was the amount of drop passes made by the offence when entering the offensive zone. Those were some easy picks for the Hurricanes and made good use of them.

The power play continues to be an issue for the Leafs as they went 1/3 on the night and had a 5-on-3 advantage for 1.20 in the third period to take the lead. On that opportunity, they generated chances but were futile. A lot of the players looked nervous, especially Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle. When they should’ve taken a shot they didn’t, and when they shouldn’t have, they did.

On the season, the Leafs haven’t lost back-to-back games in regulation, which is pretty impressive, and in the last seven games the Leafs are now 4-2-1.


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