That was quite the victory for the Toronto Maple Leafs over their hated rivals, the Montreal Canadiens. If you take into consideration, the Canadiens were about to embark on a six game western road trip, and you’d think they would’ve played like they wanted this game more. But no, the Leafs came up big in every facet of the game and won 5-2.
Even before this game, and the road trip, the Canadiens were playing some pretty bad hockey coming into this game having lost six of their past ten, and had given up 36 goals in that stretch.
In the 693rd edition of this rivalry, the Canadiens continued that trend of late and got outplayed in the first period by a much more aggressive Maple Leafs team that went for the body, took shots, and went after the puck. Quite simply, the Leafs played with heart and passion, something that had been missing.
The Maple Leafs came out of the first period with a 1-0 lead on Luke Schenn’s first career NHL goal which took him 41 games to get, but it was worth it. It wasn’t the fanciest goal, but a smart goal, that was created off a good hard fore check. And Schenn pinched half way down the board as the puck moved towards him, and just put a low shot on net, that went through the legs of Brad May, and through the legs of a deep Carey Price.
The Leafs matched and beat their total shot output of 16 from Thursday night’s embarrassing loss to the Buffalo Sabres, with 18 in the first period. The Leafs more than made up for that debacle tonight.
The first period could’ve gone either way, as the game got off to a fast pace, and both teams traded chances. The Canadiens had the first real good opportunity to score on a 4 on 2 rush, but hit the post on an empty net chance, and once again later in the period.
As the period wore on, the Leafs tightened up and didn’t allow the Canadiens to have a prolonged rush in their zone and held them to five shots. On the flip side, the Leafs played a solid offensive game.
Near the end of the period, Jason Blake was called for a penalty, after the Leafs had trouble stopping the Canadiens’ second real good cycle of the period. And with just 0.7 seconds, Jeff Finger cleared the puck out of play from his own end that cleared the Montreal blue line. That set up the Canadiens with a 5 on 3 advantage to start the second period.
Right off the bat, the Canadiens made good on the power play and tied the game up 25 seconds in. Toronto answered right back, as Public Enemy No. 1 Mikhail Grabovksi showed great determination to fight for the puck at the blue line and keep it in. Which created a mini 2 on 1 down low, and Lee Stempniak fed a wide open Nik Kulemin for an easy goal.
After that, things got chippy between the two teams as Max Pacioretty charged into an already falling Mike Van Ryn into the boards. That hit did it for Van Ryn who had to leave the game. Then the classless captain Saku Koivu dug his stick into the face of Matt Stajan, which somehow went unnoticed. Both players did receive ten minute misconducts for their actions afterwards. From then on, both teams managed to take some real stupid penalties. Most notably were Pavel Kubina with three lazy penalties and Georges Laraque with 9 minutes in penalties, including a fighting major.
Midway through the second, Chris Higgins was sprung on a breakaway, but was stopped by a very solid Vesa Toskala, who played a great game. You could tell he was into this game, even though he had a light first period, but made the big saves when the team needed it and made 31 saves. He challenged the shooters, as he got out right on top of the blue ice, and showed for at least one game, that he can be a good starting goalie.
As for his counterpart Carey Price, he was the complete opposite of Toskala’s game. Price was not into the game, his body language showed that, was very casual on a lot of the shots he faced, and played extremely deep in his crease. He got burned for playing that way, and all five Toronto goals, Price was in the crease, like a scared a church mouse that sticks around in the hole in the wall. His record reflected his play as well, with only 2 wins in 7 games, and a 3.43 GAA since his return from a hip injury.
With the Canadiens in the game, they started to take control of the pace and game, but couldn’t get to Toskala. And the Leafs played laid back in the second period as well, and didn’t show that same killer instinct they showed in the first period and were outshot 15-5. But as the period came to a close, Toronto regained some of its focus, and it showed on a late penalty kill, on which Dominic Moore was able to kill off a lot time and at the same time draw a penalty.
Even though the Leafs started the third frame with a penalty, they were able to kill it off with some good defence, and didn’t stand around and watch the puck. This time, they went at the shooter with active sticks.
Off of some good penalty killing, came the momentum back on the Leafs’ side, and they were able to pot two goals courtesy of Jason Blake’s 18th and 19th goals, for a 4-1 lead. This guy probably has all the momentum in the world right now, and has scored nine goals- 16 points- in his last ten games.
The first goal came off a broken play, as Montreal had trouble clearing their zone and turned the puck over in the neutral zone. Blake slapped the puck, which looked to be on edge, and it fluttered into the net. The second came off a 2 on 1 rush, where Andrei Markov was caught pinching, and Moore and Blake were off. Blake snapped home a perfect shot right under the bar.
Montreal did score to cut the lead in half with nine minutes to go, but the Toronto defence was too good on this night to get cracked for a third goal. With just over a minute to go, Jeff Finger scored off a clean face off win, top shelf, for good measure.
Penalties were a problem for both sides and managed to take a combined 23 penalties for 68 minutes. The Leafs had more penalties, 13, and in minutes, 37, but did a superb job in killing 1/8 penalties. In the past five games, the Canadiens had scored five power play goals, while the Leafs were struggling having gone 2/12 in their past five games.
The opinions and thoughts expressed in this or any other article written by 12nadnuk are of his thinking and what he thinks is correct or close to it in the sporting world. If there are any problems by anyone, 12nadnuk is open for rebuttal and what not, and honest criticism. There is also a comments section, so feel free to post what is on your mind about the article. Thank you for reading.
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