FINALLY, A WINNING STREAK

The Toronto Maple Leafs finally have a winning streak, which is at three games now after their shootout win over the Martin Brodeur-less New Jersey Devils 3-2 at the Air Canada Centre.

The game was quite a bore, as both teams played a defensive minded game, and the offensive chances for either side were kept to a minimum. You would come to expect something like this anytime any team plays the Devils.

The first period started off slow, mainly for the Leafs and for the seventh time this season gave up the opening goal on the first shot allowed. New Jersey’s Michael Rupp scored 1.49 into the game off a rebound chance that came from a 2-on-1 rush.

The AHL call-up Jamie Sifers, who just played his third game of his career was caught pinching, and the Devils went the other way on a 2-on-1. The initial shot was stopped, but Jeff Finger made a horrible clearing attempt right to Rupp.

The rest of the period looked as if it was in slow motion for the Leafs, as they were just slow skating and slow on rotations. The New Jersey players hounded the Toronto skaters and pressured them smartly to create turnovers. The Leafs with the puck weren’t very good either, and barely had good scoring opportunities.

For the one good scoring chance the Leafs had, Lee Stempniak missed a one-timer off a cross ice pass, and shot the puck low, which was stopped. When Stempniak should’ve shot high as the top half of the net was open. Since the trade, Stempniak has only scored once as a Leaf, which was back on November 29th.

The Leafs were outshot 9-5 in the first period, and Andre Deveaux got into a scrap with Jay Leach, trying to spark the Leafs, but it didn’t work.

In the second period, it looked as if the two teams swapped mindsets, and the Leafs played better, while the Devils were the slower team and were caught flat footed plenty of times.

Off a faceoff win, the puck was cycled down low and Nik Kulemin kept the play alive behind the net. From the point Tomas Kaberle wristed the puck towards goal, and Nik Antropov scored on the rebound to tie the game. From there the Leafs got a spark and played a smart game, which led to their second goal.

Jeremy Williams was the goal scorer who snapped one by Scott Clemmensen as he came off the half boards. The goal was created off of good fore checking and the Leafs just played some simple hockey by going for the puck with a strong pursuit. In his first three games of the year, Jeremy Williams has scored a goal in each game, has four points now, and has a shooting accuracy of 42% on 3/7 shooting. With the changes that are sure to come in the upcoming future, Jeremy Williams looks to be a lock in the Leaf lineup for next season.

On both Toronto goals, Tomas Kaberle got an assist.

With twenty seconds left to go in the second period, New Jersey sniper Zach Parise scored his 17th goal of the season on the power play, and has 8 goals in the 18 games Martin Brodeur has missed. The goal was a bit of a weird one as it deflected off his visor and into the net. Jeff Finger committed the penalty when he tripped up Zach Parise in the Toronto zone.

The third period was evenly matched, but the Leafs did have more opportunities to score. In the end, one time ex-Leaf/Marlboro Scott Clemmensen was pretty much the difference, and has been the difference for the Devils since Brodeur went down with an elbow injury. He played a solid game, and stopped 25 out of 27 shots.

In fact, both teams ended up with 27 shots on goal, and Vesa Toskala also came up big for the Leafs. When that early goal was conceded, it looked as if it was going to be another long night in net, but Toskala made key saves in the game.

Late in the third, the Devils had another 2-on-1 rush, but John Madden shot wide of the net. Then Zach Parise came down the wing and let go a hard slapper that was stopped and juggled by Toskala. The biggest save he made came real late in the third when Travis Zajak got away from the defence and out-skated the speedy Mikhail Grabovski for a breakaway. Vesa Toskala came up big with a toe save right when time expired to send the game to overtime.

In overtime, the Devils had the best chance to score when Patrick Elias received a nice pass from Zach Parise, but Elias missed a tap in, on which he completely fanned on.

In the shootout, the first two shooters from either side were stopped on their shots. On the third Toronto shot, Jeremy Williams was the shooter and scored high on Clemmensen. While Patrick Elias just got one by Vesa Toskala. The winning shot was just a beauty, as Jason Blake came down with speed, stopped his pace, and did a 360 to score into an open net. Brian Rolston had to score to extend the shootout, but shot wide.

This was also the first home ice shootout win in Vesa Toskala’s career. The Leafs are 2-4 in shootouts this season, with both wins coming against New Jersey.


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