Archives for December 2011

I saw this one coming.

• Wins: 16
• losses: 20
• shootout wins:
  3
• shootout losses: 2
• points: 35

recap

‘Canes rally to beat Leafs 4-3 in OT
Thursday, 12.29.2011 / 11:25 PM
RALEIGH — For 38 games, Carolina center Eric Staal struggled mightily. Then his brother — Pittsburgh center Jordan Staal — chalked up an assist.
When Eric registered his sixth straight game without a point Tuesday night against Jordan’s Penguins, the younger brother offered some postgame advice.
“He was the first one telling me, ‘Just start shooting from everywhere,” Eric Staal said. “Make it ugly.'”
The Hurricanes captain heeded the first part of that advice, firing five shots against Toronto Thursday night. But his two goals — a breakaway and an overtime one-timer — were a sight to behold for Stall, and Hurricanes fans, as Carolina registered a 4-3 win at the RBC Center.
Staal also added an assist on the game-tying goal by Zac Dalpe, as the Hurricanes overcame a 3-1 third-period deficit.
Staal had been mired in a season-long slump, with just 20 points and a -22 plus/minus rating entering Thursday night’s game. So in the hours before facing Toronto, Staal was focused on Jordan’s advice.
“I talked to him on the way to the rink tonight,” Staal explained. “I said, ‘I’ll be firing it from all angles and we’ll see what happens.’ When you get that first one, you get some confidence.”
His first goal came with the game slipping away in the third period. Nikolai Kulemin had given Toronto a 2-1 lead at 6:36 of the third when he finished the rebound of a Darryl Boyce shot. Then Joffrey Lupul extended the lead to 3-1 on a puck that deflected in front of Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward, who stopped 21 shots.
That’s when Dalpe sprung Staal with a lead pass from the boards that the captain slipped between the pads of Toronto goaltender James Reimer at 9:48.
Back within a goal, Carolina found some life. Dalpe, scoreless through three call-ups this season, tied the game with his fourth career goal, roofing a backhander of a Jiri Tlusty slot.
“I’d like to tell you I had it backhand the whole time, but it’s one of those plays where it’s a last resort,” said Dalpe. “It’s just instinct. When the puck’s around the net, you get hungry.”
Dalpe’s contribution may have been as welcome as Staal’s. The Hurricanes consider Dalpe the top prospect in the organization, a player with well-rounded offensive skills. But after 10 NHL games this season, he was still searching for his first point.
“Ten games without a point, obviously I’m a guy that likes to get points,” he said. “But that’s the beauty of sticking with it and staying positive. There’s a lot more work to be done, so a little bit of confidence each game, and hopefully it adds up.”
Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller was especially pleased that Dalpe had shaken off a difficult night against the Penguins. Dalpe had already started his Christmas break with the American Hockey Leaugue’s Charlotte Checkers, only to be thrown onto Staal’s line Tuesday night.
“(Dalpe’s) a goal scorer, and it’s a big step and a big adjustment for him,” said Muller. “He found the knack. That’s what they do, goal scorers. They find the right time to bury it. That was a big goal for us.”
The Toronto loss was the second in a row after a 5-3 decision at Florida on Tuesday. It didn’t sit well with Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson.
“I know we know how to defend a lead, and yet we didn’t,” Wilson said. “So that’s something that we’re going to have to address in practice again tomorrow.”
The Toronto coach was critical of his top line, which has been among the most productive in the NHL all season. Joffrey Lupul registered four shots, but Tyler Bozak and Phil Kessel did not manage any.
“They didn’t have a very good game tonight,” he said. “A lot of turnovers in our zone, so our wings need to play better. It’s just one of those nights that happens.”
Hurricanes center Brandon Sutter played a role in frustrating Toronto’s top line, making several smart defensive plays as well as winning 12 of 17 faceoffs. Sutter scored the first goal of the game when he beat Reimer over the glove for his eighth of the season.
“It was all about our leadership tonight — Brandon Sutter, Staal, Ward in the nets,” said Muller. “I thought they had great games, battling to the end, fighting through the adversity like we talked about. When your leaders play like that, there’s nothing better.”
And the best part for Muller was seeing his captain be a difference maker.
“I thought Staal was the best player on the ice tonight,” he said. “You talk to him and tell him to do the right things, and the end result will kick in somewhere. It was great that it happened tonight because it was a big load off him. I know it’s just one game, but that’s a huge game mentally for him.”

time to quickly catch up on these pre show onMojo Radio

• Wins: 16
• losses: 19
• shootout wins: 3
• shootout losses: 2
• points: 35

recap.

Minor-league call-ups lead Panthers past Leafs, 5-3
Wednesday, 12.28.2011 / 3:18 AM
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers’ scoring difficulties ended at the right time.
Coming into Tuesday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Panthers had not scored more than three goals since Dec. 5, a span of nine games, including an 8-0 loss in their last game against Boston.
However, the Panthers broke out of their drought as Kris Versteeg and Jason Garrison scored power play goals for the Panthers in a 5-3 win over the Maple Leafs.
“That’s what we were really looking for,” Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said. “They’re a really good hockey team. We’re so respectful of the talent and that’s not just blabber after the game. We really were worried about the speed and the skill that they have and sometimes the best defense is a good offense.”
Erik Gudbranson, Bill Thomas, and Tomas Fleischmann also scored for the Panthers, and Brian Campbell had three assists.
“Right now with so many guys out, we may have to win games 1-0, 2-1, obviously it’s nice to get a few,” Campbell said.
Jose Theodore stopped 29 of 32 shots for the Panthers, who snapped a three-game losing streak.
Mikhail Grabovski scored two goals to lead for the Leafs. Dion Phaneuf also scored.
Florida was 2 for 3 on the power play. Toronto was 1 for 4.
The Maple Leafs trailed 4-2 in the third when Grabovski and Jake Gardiner hit the post on consecutive long shots.
Grabovski did score when a shot by Clarke MacArthur deflected off his left skate while falling backwards in front of the net. The goal at 9:17 was reviewed and upheld, and cut the lead to 4-3.
Fleischmann gave the Panthers a 5-3 lead as he sneaked a puck past Jonas Gustavsson from the right wing and the Panthers held on for the final eight minutes.
“He scores big goals for us, that’s what big-time players do,” Campbell said.
Florida, coming off an 8-0 loss to Boston on Dec. 23, struck in the opening period on their first shot on goal.
Tim Kennedy dug the puck off the side boards away from Joffrey Lupul and passed it back to Gudbranson, who rocketed a slap shot from the blue line past James Reimer’ glove side for a 1-0 lead. It was the second goal of the season for the 19-year old rookie defenseman.
The Leafs outshot the Panthers 11-4 in the first and were finally able to score in the second. Grabovski converted after nifty passes from Cody Franson and Nikolai Kulemin.
Nineteen seconds later, the Panthers responded as Thomas got ahead of the pack and scored on a breakaway as the puck slid off his stick beating Reimer.
“You can’t do much about the guy who missed his shot,” Reimer said. “It was a kind of a fluky goal.”
Reimer’s night ended after the Panthers extended their lead to 3-1 on a power-play goal by Garrison.
Reimer stopped five of eight shots before being replaced by Gustavsson, who didn’t fare much better as Versteeg scored a 5 on 3-power play goal three minutes into his turn in net.
The Panthers’ second-period scoring barrage, which included three goals in less than five minutes, gave them a 4-1 lead.
“It was 1-to-1 and we were controlling the game,” Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “They scored early but didn’t have a sniff after that and from 1-to-1 we should’ve been able to springboard off of that and we immediately gave them the lead right back.”
NOTES: Prior to the game, the Maple Leafs placed D John-Michael Liles on injured reserve due to concussion-like symptoms stemming from a hit by Buffalo’s Paul Gaustad on Dec. 22. . Maple Leafs F Joffrey Lupul has recorded a point in nine of his last 10 games. . Panthers F Stephen Weiss (upper body injury) missed his second consecutive game. . Panthers top prospect Jonathan Huberdeau, the third overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, had a goal and four assists for Canada in an 8-1 win over Finland at the world junior hockey championship Monday. … Former NFL and Florida Gators star Jevon Kearse was in attendance.

sorry new york but you had to lose this one.

• Wins: 16
• losses: 18
• shootout wins: 3
• shootout losses: 2
• points: 35

Recap.

Leafs start fast, hold off Islanders 5-3
Saturday, 12.24.2011 / 2:50 AM
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a lot to smile about as they reach the Christmas break.
The Leafs head into the holiday off their best pre-Christmas performance since 2003-04 after they used a three-goal first period to beat the New York Islanders 5-3 on Friday night at the Nassau Coliseum.
Goals by Clarke MacArthur, Nazem Kadri and Carl Gunnarsson gave the Leafs a 3-0 lead just 11:15 into the game, and Joey Crabb added a shorthanded goal midway through the second period as Toronto won for the 18th time in 35 games this season. With an 18-13-4 record and 40 points, Toronto is sixth in the Eastern Conference and has its best record at the Christmas break since going 20-6-6-3 in ’03-04 — the last time the Leafs made the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Needless to say, it’s a happy Christmas in Toronto as the Leafs head home for a couple of days before resuming their four-game trip at Florida on Tuesday.
“It’s funny how miserable Christmas is when you lose,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “You’re miserable whenever you lose, but you don’t want to be Ebenezer Scrooge at Christmas time.
“This is nice to get a little bit of a cushion, for our team to relax and get over some of the bumps and bruises that we have.”
Despite struggling to control rebounds for much of the night, James Reimer made 30 saves to improve to 7-3-3 this season. Twelve of those save came in the third period as the Isles pressed for the tie after John Tavares scored at 10:30 to cut the margin to one goal before Joffrey Lupul hit the empty net with 8.9 seconds remaining in the game to give the Leafs wins on back-to-back nights entering the break.
“We said we wanted to focus on winning the two before the break, go in feeling good about ourselves,” captain Dion Phaneuf said. “We are. We’ll use these couple of days to recharge.
“They call it a break, but it’s not really a break, it’s two days,” he added. “We’ll go enjoy our time away and come back ready to work. It’s a big trip after Christmas.”
The Islanders, who lost 4-2 to the Rangers in New York on Thursday, fell to 11-16-6 and are No. 14 in the East, 11 points out of the last playoff spot. They have not made the playoffs since 2006-07
Both teams were playing for the second time in as many nights, but though the Leafs had to fly to Long Island after winning in Toronto on Thursday, they were by far the more spirited team in the opening period.
“We came out strong,” Reimer said. “They may have had some holiday distractions, but I feel we were just more determined.”
MacArthur put the Leafs ahead just 1:45 into the game. Tim Connolly carried deep into the Islanders zone before dishing to MacArthur in the right circle. He cut to the net and beat Evgeni Nabokov with a quick, high shot from well below the faceoff dot for his 10th of the season.
Marty Reasoner took a needless tripping penalty at 2:37, and with 15 seconds left on the power play, Kadri got his second goal in two nights to make it 2-0. Nabokov kicked Jake Gardiner’s long slapper onto the stick of Josh Bailey, but the Isles’ center flubbed his clearing attempt right onto the stick of Kadri, who put home a backhander from the slot through traffic.
A shaky Nabokov had no one but himself to blame at 11:15, when Gunnarson’s 55-foot straightaway slapper beat him cleanly for a 3-0 lead. It was Gunnarson’s first goal of the season and brought boos from the Nassau Coliseum crowd.
“When you’re not moving your feet, good things don’t happen,” Isles coach Jack Capuano said. “We were flat-footed. We weren’t ready to play, and they took advantage of that.
“You can’t give a team like that extended time in your zone. We did that in the first period, and they capitalized.”
The Isles quieted some of those boos at 15:45 when Mike Mottau’s stretch pass caught Kyle Okposo in full flight to set up a 2-on-1 break. Okposo carried well into the left circle before snapping a shot past Reimer’s glove into the top right corner for his sixth goal of the season, all of which have come in the past 15 games.
Toronto entered the game with the NHL’s worst penalty-killing numbers, and the Islanders made them pay 40 seconds into the second period for an interference call against Keith Aulie with 30.6 seconds left in the first. Frans Nielsen scored his first goal since Nov. 15 when he picked a deflected puck out of a tangle of feet in the slot and zipped it past Reimer to make it 3-2.
But the Leafs’ penalty killers struck back at 8:59. With Toronto’s Cody Franson in the box for high-sticking, Tyler Bozak stole the puck from PA Parenteau in his own zone and fed Crabb to start a 2-on-1. Crabb and Bozak played give-and-go before Crabb hit the wide-open left side of the net for his sixth of the season and the fourth shorthanded goal by Toronto this season.
Nabokov kept it a two-goal game with big stops on Gardiner and Nikolai Kulemin in the final minute of the second period, then made another 9:32 into the third period when he went left to right and stoned Phil Kessel on a 2-on-1 after a perfect pass from Lupul. That became a big play less than a minute later when Tavares took Parenteau’s pass out, stepped to his left in the slot and out-waited Reimer before putting the puck inside the left post for his 11th of the season.
The game marked the return to Long Island of Toronto assistant Scott Gordon, who was fired as Islanders coach last November and hired by Wilson this past summer.

here’s another win. miracles.

• Wins: 15
• losses: 18
• shootout wins: 3
• shootout losses: 2
• points: 33

The recap.

Maple Leafs hold off Sabres 3-2
Friday, 12.23.2011 / 1:50 AM
TORONTO — Nazem Kadri finally gave Maple Leafs fans a taste of what they have been waiting for.
Toronto’s first-round pick in the 2009 NHL Draft scored the go-ahead goal 5:52 into the third period and James Reimer stopped 40 shots as the Leafs edged the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 Thursday night at Air Canada Centre.
The win snapped the Leafs’ three-game losing streak and moved them into sixth place in the Eastern Conference going into Friday’s game on Long Island, their last before the Christmas break.
The Leafs also got goals by Phil Kessel and David Steckel, but it was Kadri who became the hero in his first NHL game since Oct. 24. After Derek Roy broke in off the right wing and beat Reimer with a wrist shot 1:28 into the third period to tie the game at 2-2, Kadri put the Leafs ahead to stay by beating Ryan Miller with a wrister from the slot off a nice drop pass by Clarke MacArthur.
“It felt great,” Kadri said of his goal. “It’s nice to have an immediate impact. Last year it took me a few games to score the first one so it’s great to get the monkey off my back. Hopefully there are more to come.”
Kadri is known for his offensive skill, but he feels spending most of the past two seasons with the AHL Toronto Marlies has helped his two-way game.
“I was controlling the puck well, when I did get my touches I didn’t make any turnovers,” he said, “I was making smart plays; it shows what I’ve learned and that I’m ready to play.”
Coach Ron Wilson didn’t disagree,
“He made plays, he was good along the wall in our zone, that’s what he has to do,” Wilson said. “He’s smart, he sees the ice, he’s got confidence, he skates into holes, and he distributes the puck really well.”
It was Kadri’s first goal in four games with the Leafs this season and the fourth of his career; the other three came during a 29-game recall last season. Kadri admitted he had some tense moments late in the third period when he took a tripping penalty with the Sabres down a goal.
“I was holding my breath in the penalty box,” he said, “but the PK came through.”
Instrumental in keeping the Sabres off the scoreboard was the play of Reimer, who has made 40 saves in each of the last two games, and looks to be regaining the form he showed as a rookie last season.
Reimer said he had a lot of help,
“Our penalty-killing was great tonight, they blocked a lot of shots, and 5-on-5 they kept them to the outside, I saw [the shots] all the way in,” he said. “We battled hard in the defensive zone tonight, even though they got a lot of shots I was able to see most of them.”
Reimer missed more than a month after a collision with Montreal’s Brian Gionta on Oct. 22, and Wilson said the young goaltender is just starting to get back to the form he had before being hurt.
“He looks a little more comfortable in there,” Wilson said. “To get the win in a tight hard-fought game like that is only going to do his confidence and our whole team’s confidence a lot of good.”
For the injury-plagued Sabres, who were missing six regulars, the loss was their third straight and fifth in six games. They will get a few days to heal before returning to action at home Monday against Washington.
“We got the number of shots,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said after his team outshot the Leafs 42-31. “We got the chances. We got the lead. We bounced back and had a great start to the third period. We just haven’t had much ricochet or have many bounces go our way.”
The Leafs had the better of a scoreless first period, outshooting the Sabres 12-6. Miller was forced to make several good saves, stopping a Mikhail Grabovski redirection midway through the period and then a stuff attempt by Kessel a minute later. Near the end of the period, Miller denied Tyler Bozak from short range to keep Toronto off the scoresheet. The Leafs also squandered some glorious opportunities, Matt Frattin fanned on a sweet 2-on-1 feed from Grabovski, and Grabovski fired high on another prime chance.
The Sabres rebounded from their slow start and took control early in the second period, aided by four Toronto penalties in the first 10:37. Reimer was put to the test as the Sabres held a 14-1 edge in shots midway through the period but couldn’t score until Jason Pominville got his 11th of the season at 11:49 by banking the puck off Leafs defenseman Luke Schenn and past Reimer for a power-play goal.
Miller made a big save off a Kessel one-timer, helping the Sabres kill a 5-on-3 power play for 55 seconds. But the Leafs finally solved Miller at 15:52 when Steckel swept home the rebound of Schenn’s slapper from the point. With the crowd still buzzing after Steckel’s sixth goal of the season, Joffrey Lupul set up Kessel off the rush with a backhand pass across the slot and Kessel beat Miller for his 20th goal of the season at 16:54, giving Toronto two goals in 62 seconds and a 2-1 lead.
Kessel joins Chicago’s Jonathan Toews, Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos and Marian Gaborik of the New York Rangers as the only players to reach the 20-goal mark this season.
The Sabres had plenty of chances after Kadri’s goal, but they continue to struggle offensively and take a 1-4-1 record in their last six games into the Christmas break.
“We wanted to end this on a pretty good note here,” a disappointed Pominville said. “Again, the effort was there, and the results weren’t. If we keep putting efforts up like this and limit those little [mental mistakes], we’re going to get on a roll here.”

title says it all.

• Wins: 14
• losses: 18
• shootout wins: 3
• shootout losses: 2
• points: 31

Here’s the recap.

Kings edge Leafs in shootout
Tuesday, 12.20.2011 / 12:05 AM
TORONTO — Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown scored a power-play goal and the shootout winner and Jonathan Quick stopped 31 shots in a pulsating 3-2 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre on Monday night.
The victory was a much needed one for the Kings, who had lost six of seven games. It evened the record of interim coach John Stevens at 2-2, with new bench boss Darryl Sutter expected to be officially introduced Tuesday.
Stevens, who is expected to be retained as an assistant, stressed the positives of the situation the new coach is inheriting.
“The one thing he can rest assured is that we have some quality people here to build around,” Stevens said of Sutter. “We’ve got a lot of good soldiers in the room there who are going to help us get out of this.”
Monday was a good first step towards turning things around. For the first time in 12 games, the League’s lowest-ranked offense scored 3 goals in a contest, peppering Leafs goaltender James Reimer with 42 shots.
Brown was particularly strong, leading the way with 6 shots on goal and 5 hits. The top line of Brown, Anze Kopitar and Simon Gagne was dangerous all night, sustaining puck possession in the Leafs’ zone and cycling to create multiple scoring chances.
“It’s important that we got two points,” Brown said. “For everyone, it’s been a long road trip — not only with the travel, but with everything that has gone on.”
Only the heroics of Reimer, who made 40 saves, kept the Leafs in the game and allowed them to gain a valuable point in the standings. Toronto coach Ron Wilson lauded his goaltender.
“He played really well, he saw just about every puck in traffic, he made some great saves,” said Wilson. “He had some trouble at times handling the puck, but I’d be nitpicking. He made the saves we needed.”
Reimer, who has struggled recently since after returning from a concussion, drew confidence from his performance.
“I was reading the play and the pucks were hitting me,” Reimer said. “To get that result, it just gives you more confidence. When they’re not going your way, you have to work hard and fight and be mentally tough to give yourself confidence and this it just gives you a little bit of a boost.”
Reimer and Quick both had to be sharp right from the opening faceoff. In a wide-open first period, the Leafs outshot the Kings 15-14. Justin Williams opened the scoring at 7:54 when he took advantage of a strange bounce off a dump-in by Drew Doughty. The puck caromed off the glass right into the slot and Williams beat Reimer with a wrist shot for his fifth of the season.
The Leafs answered just over three minutes later, as Matt Frattin’s aggressive forecheck forced Quick to fire the puck blindly around the boards right to Tyler Bozak. The latter then fed John Michael-Liles moving in from the left point, and Liles blasted a slap shot past Quick for his fourth goal of the season.
The Kings dominated the second period, outshooting the Leafs 16-4, and scored the only goal on a controversial play. L.A.’s struggling power play finally broke through for its first tally in seven games with Luke Schenn in the box for tripping. Doughty made a key play at the blue line to keep the puck in the zone, starting a sequence of quick passes that went from Kopitar to Gagne to a wide-open Brown in the slot, where he fired it past Reimer for his seventh goal of the season.
But Wilson thought Doughty might have failed to keep the puck inside the blue line.
“I’m not sure if the puck was offside, but it sure looked like it,” Wilson said.
Entering the third period down 2-1, the Leafs struck early to tie the game, as Frattin converted a long backdoor saucer pass from Mikhail Grabovski for his fourth goal of the season. From there the goaltenders took over, holding the fort through the final period and overtime until the Kings prevailed in the shootout.
“It was huge,” Doughty said. “It kind of (stunk) that they scored that goal to tie it up late, but we were pushing back. We needed that win. We needed that two points. Brownie did a great job with a great shot in the shootout, bar down, and it was huge for us. The two points is what we came here for, and it was great to get it.”
The Leafs, who have now lost five of six games, will be without forward Colby Armstrong for the immediate future as they try to right the ship on Thursday against Buffalo. Armstrong was a late scratch Monday when it was discovered he was dealing with a concussion suffered Saturday night against the Canucks.
The Kings, meanwhile, await the start of the Sutter era, which will begin at home Thursday against Anaheim.

Ouch.

• Wins: 14
• losses: 17
• shootout wins: 3
• shootout losses: 1
• points: 31

recap:

Canucks end trip with win at Toronto
Sunday, 12.18.2011 / 12:02 AM
TORONTO — The Vancouver Canucks ended their road trip on a high note after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs by a 5-3 score at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night.
Timely goals and highlight-reel saves by Roberto Luongo — who made 26 saves — propelled Vancouver to victory and a 3-1-1 record on its five-game road trip.
The Canucks put the game out of reach when Alexandre Burrows tallied his 11th goal of the season with just under six minutes remaining in the third period to make it 4-2.
The scoring play was a result of the Canucks taking advantage of a lot of time and space which started when Henrik Sedin took the puck from Phil Kessel and was allowed to skate clear through the neutral zone before finding Burrows just over the blue line. From there, Burrows capitalized on soft coverage, skating in towards the middle of the faceoff circles before firing the puck in off the post. The goal sent the many Canucks fans in attendance into celebration mode.
“I thought we had lot of room all night to be honest, for some reason it seems when you play out east there is a little bit more room, it’s a little bit more entertaining, a little bit more fast paced and open then when you play some teams in the west,” said Burrows, whose game-winning goal along with an assist earned him first star honors.
“They turned the puck over in a bad area,” said Henrik Sedin, “If that happens usually you get a lot of room, we we’re up against a team that played the second day of a back to back and they looked a little tired, but we played well and didn’t give them a whole lot.”
Kessel scored his 19th of the season, taking Tyler Bozak’s tape-to-tape pass from the corner to cut the lead to 4-3 giving hope to the home-side and to their fans, but Jannik Hansen put an end to that by scoring his 10th for the Canucks back up by 2 with 1:40 left. Hansen by pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone and outmuscled Dion Phaneuf to the net, going to his forehand and beat Jonas Gustavsson to make it 5-3.
“They had the puck in deep, nobody was out on the left point so I could skate out on it and their d-men had been on for long and maybe were tired so I tried to make it a race and cut in front of them and I fortunate to keep the puck on my stick and able to get the puck over the shoulder of the goalie,” Hansen said.
Gustavsson, who made 31 saves, many of them tough — especially through the first two periods — was particularly tough on himself regarding Hansen’s insurance marker.
“As long as you lose the game you can’t be happy, I needed to stop that breakaway to give the team a chance at the end but other than that I felt pretty good,” Gustavsson said. “We believe in ourselves (our recent losses) have been tight games, we could have won those games. We know we are a good team and we just have to show it.”
Goals in the first and last minute of the second period gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead heading into the second intermission.
Daniel Sedin knocked in his 13th of the season with 44 seconds left, taking a tremendous feed from Burrows through two Leafs to beat Gustavsson to give Vancouver a one-goal lead after two periods of play.
Saturday marked Daniel Sedin’s return to the lineup after a one game absence with back spasms. It was his first goal on the Canucks’ road trip and first since Dec. 6, when he had a hat trick at home versus Columbus. It was a tough way to end the period for Gustavsson, who turned aside 11 shots, many of which were good scoring chances.
Forty-nine seconds into the period, Ryan Kesler stole the puck in the corner to the left of Gustavsson and went to the net. His jam attempt bounded out in front to Mason Raymond, who had a wide-open net to shoot at. He buried his third of the season to put the Canucks up, 2-1. Chris Higgins got the second assist on the play, giving him his second point of the night as he earned third star honors.
Canucks coach Alain Vigneault was impressed with the work of his second line.
“The line at the beginning of the game that was doing the best was Ryan Kesler’s line, those three guys had speed and were creating turnovers,” he said. “They created so many turnovers tonight, but we couldn’t make them (the Leafs) pay, we should have had that game put into our hands a little bit earlier than we did tonight.”
The Leafs drew even at two when Bozak scored at 7:33. After knocking a Kessel pass out of the air, Bozak charged down the middle of the ice towards Luongo. Alex Edler initially seemed to have to have Bozak in check, but he was able to corral the puck to his backhand and feather it over Luongo’s right shoulder for his seventh of the season. It was the first time he found the back of the net after seven games without a goal, the last time he found the back of the net before tonight was Nov. 27 in Anaheim.
The score was tied at one after 20 minutes of play. Vancouver wasted no time in getting the scoring started as Edler found Higgins wide open in front 62 seconds into the game. Higgins made a quick move to his backhand to beat Gustavsson for his ninth goal of the season.
The Leafs tied the game just less than three minutes later, when Joffrey Lupul scored on the power play. After Luongo stoned Bozak in front, Lupul was able to play the puck off his body, maintain position under pressure and get his stick on it. It was his 15th goal of the season.
Not long after the tying goal, Vancouver thought it had taken the lead, but it was ruled that Gustavsson was interfered with. Kesler argued, but to no avail.
Luongo made a spectacular save in near the midway point of the opening period, coming across on a 2-on-1 to rob Colby Armstrong on what looked to be a sure goal. Clarke MacArthur made a pinpoint pass to Armstrong, but Luongo got his glove on the puck for a dazzling save.
Luongo wasn’t done there, as he came up big again with just over five minutes remaining when Phaneuf set up Tim Connolly with a nice pass from behind the net. While Luongo anticipated Phaneuf to go around the net, he sensed the backdoor pass and came back to the near post to prevent a wide-open Connolly from scoring.
“When they needed a couple of big saves from him they obviously got them, and we never could get to a spot where we got ahead and felt good about ourselves, we were always chasing,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson said.
Vancouver returns home to face the Minnesota Wild on Monday, while Toronto will play L.A. at home on Monday in what could be Darryl Sutter’s coaching debut with the Kings.

Win one, lose one. buh.

• Wins: 14
• losses: 16
• shootout wins: 3
• shootout losses: 1
• points: 31

Have a recap.

Sabres hold off Maple Leafs 5-4
Saturday, 12.17.2011 / 12:02 AM
Thomas Vanek helped the Buffalo Sabres’ offense come alive.
The Sabres’ top gun scored twice and added two assists as Buffalo held off the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night before a full house at the First Niagara Center.
The Sabres had scored just 14 times in seven games before their Vanek-led outburst.
“We need to get our swagger back, especially when we have the lead,” said Vanek, who leads the Sabres with 16 goals. “Sometimes that’s all it takes. There’s no miracle to it. Everyone here is a good player, so when we get the lead we have to go for the next one and bury a team. We didn’t quite do that, but I think it was a step in the right direction.”
The four-point game was the fourth of Vanek’s career, but his first since April 10, 2010.
Tyler Ennis had a goal and an assist, Drew Stafford scored his 100th NHL goal and Andrej Sekera also connected for Buffalo, which finished a season-high five-game homestand with a 2-1-2 record. The Sabres (16-12-3) visit Pittsburgh on Saturday..
The Sabres trailed 2-1 midway through the second period before scoring three unanswered goals, two on the power play –for a 4-2 lead. Toronto took five penalties in the second, and all but six seconds of the final 7:03 of the middle period saw one team on the power play.
“Our power play was effective, and we were able to score on our opportunities,” Vanek said. “Sometimes that’s half the challenge for us.”
Nikolai Kulemin scored on a penalty shot in the third period, and Dion Phaneuf, Joffrey Lupul, and Mikhail Grabovski also scored for Toronto (16-12-3), which is 1-2-1 in its last four games.
Ennis’ power-play goal at 14:08 of the second broke a 2-2 tie. Sekera’s goal at 18:01 came after Phaneuf was handed a five-minute major for boarding and ejected for checking Zach Kassian into the end boards from behind.
“I didn’t mean to board him,” Phaneuf said. “I went in to finish my check and the puck got caught along the boards. He turned right at the last second.”
Kulemin converted his penalty shot at 9:56 of the third after he was tripped by Jordan Leopold on a breakaway to make it 4-3. But Vanek got his second goal of the night with 4:16 to go, and it turned into the game-winner when Grabovski scored 31 seconds later.
“It’s good that we had positive reaction to that penalty shot,” said goalie Ryan Miller, who made 29 saves. “To answer quickly keeps them out of their comfort zone.”
After a scoreless first period, the Maple Leafs struck first on Lupul’s 14th goal 1:49 into the second. On a 2-on-1 rush with Phil Kessel, Lupul took Kessel’s pass in the left circle before flicking the puck over Miller. Stafford tied it 2 1/2 minutes later when he tapped in Vanek’s passout for a power-play goal.
Toronto went ahead again on Phaneuf’s power-play goal at 9:03, but Vanek tied it 19 seconds later when he wristed in a shot from the lower left circle.
Ennis scored during a 5-on-3 power play before Sekera scored during Phaneuf’s major penalty.
“We’ve taken far too many penalties in the last two or three weeks,” Toronto coach Ron Wilson said. “Penalty-killers taking penalties doesn’t give you a chance.”
James Reimer made 24 saves in his fourth straight start for the Maple Leafs, who had their three-game winning streak against Buffalo snapped.
“I don’t think I made enough saves,” he said. “I feel like I let down the guys that worked their butts off. They scored four goals, and that should be enough to at least get a point.”

Hey, we can win! awesome!

• Wins: 14
• losses: 15
• shootout wins: 3
• shootout losses: 1
• points: 31

Here’s the recap.

Leafs top ‘Canes 2-1 in OT
Tuesday, 12.13.2011 / 11:49 PM
TORONTO — Tim Connolly finally gave the Toronto Leafs the kind of offensive boost they’ve been waiting for.
Connolly, a free-agent signee this summer who’s been battling injuries all season, scored his second goal of the night 44 seconds into overtime Tuesday to give the Leafs a 2-1 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Connolly got his sixth goal of the season when he shoveled home a loose puck in the crease after Joffrey Lupul’s initial slapper squirted behind Cam Ward, who slammed his stick in disgust after the loss.
“I was just stretching along the far blue line and he did a great job of driving wide and shooting the puck. A lot of times in overtime that’s the best play, just to shoot it on net and then he crashed the net and I was able to pick up the loose change,” said Connolly whose last two-goal game came last Oct. 22 against Ottawa while he was a member of the Buffalo Sabres.
“Ward was doing a good job fronting pucks and stopping pucks, and we knew we were just going to have to grind it out and get a couple of ugly ones and that’s what we were able to do.”
Connolly’s heroics ended a game in which the 19,509 fans who packed the Air Canada Centre watched more than 55 minutes of scoreless hockey.
Connolly finally opened the scoring with 4:14 left in regulation. Clarke MacArthur shook off defenseman Derek Joslin by circling back to the blue line before firing a pass into a crowd to Ward’s right that Connolly deflected into the net.
Leafs coach Ron Wilson likes the depth that Connolly provides the club.
“Over his career, when he is healthy he has been a very good player, and that’s the goal here — to keep him healthy [so] he doesn’t have to play much, he plays 15 or 16 minutes,” Wilson said. “Having him [Mikhail] Grabovski and [Tyler] Bozak in the lineup and playing with different people, we’ve got a little bit of balance in terms of scoring
However, Wilson surely was not happy when Lupul was called for high-sticking less than a minute after Connolly’s goal. Carolina capitalized as former Leaf Alexei Ponikarovsky took a tape-to-tape pass in the crease from Eric Staal to score his seventh of the season at 18:06. Staal now has six points in his past four games and has only been held pointless in one game this month.
Eight of the past 10 goals scored against the Leafs have been on the power play while Carolina has converted on four of its past 12 opportunities.
Despite falling to 1-6-1 since taking over as coach, Carolina’s Kirk Muller remained upbeat after the loss as he explained why the power play seems to be turning the corner. “Sometimes when you’re not winning you press things and we we’re really forcing the power play. I was telling them too slow things down, you have two minutes to score, not 30 seconds and have the confidence that you can set up plays and you will get your goals.”
Ward was the reason the Hurricanes had something to show for their night. He finished with 36 saves on a night when his team was outshot by exactly a 2-on-1 margin — 38-19. Ward was particularly strong in the second period where he made several tough saves. He denied Phil Kessel’s attempt to go five-hole from 10 feet and stopped Matt Frattin’s individual effort in which he deked around Jamie McBain. Ward also came up big again on Bozak’s backhand chance in the slot and also on a point-blank opportunity by David Steckel.
“Wardo played well, I thought he was our best player, and he kept us in it,” Staal said. “He’s he is one of those guys that puts a lot of pressure on himself, it’s been a tough year, not only for him but for a lot of people here, it was a tough one in the end there, they got a bounce in front of the net and ended the game.”
While Toronto peppered Ward with shots, the Leafs also gave away the puck 22 times in a game that featured sloppy play from both sides.
James Reimer was tested sparingly and made 18 saves for his first win since returning from a concussion sustained Oct. 22 against Montreal. Chad LaRose provided the toughest tests for the second-year goaltender, forcing Reimer to come up big on a shorthanded rush in the third period and prior to that, on a wraparound attempt in the dying seconds of the second period.
The ‘Canes return home on Thursday to host Vancouver after a 1-2-1 road trip. The Leafs visit Buffalo on Friday for the first meeting of the season between the Northeast Division rivals, then return home for a Saturday night showdown against Vancouver.
“If we’re feeling pressure the second week of December, we’re in a lot of trouble,” Wilson said of the schedule. “There’s no pressure or anything like that. Our guys had a very professional approach to the game tonight — you wouldn’t know that we were one of the youngest teams in the League how poised we were right through the whole game.”

Apparently we can no longer win, buh.

• Wins: 13
• losses: 15
• shootout wins: 3
• shootout losses: 1
• points: 29

recap.

Saturday, 12.10.2011 / 1:47 PM
Dennis Wideman had the greatest night of his NHL career on Friday. Just how great it was depends on whom you ask.
The official postgame scoresheet said the veteran defenseman scored three power-play goals for the first hat trick of his NHL career and assisted on another extra-man goal by Nicklas Backstrom as the Washington Capitals beat Toronto 4-2 for their third win in four games.
Wideman didn’t dispute that he had four points, but he contended that the third goal isn’t his.
“The third one went in off Brooskie [Brooks Laich]. I’m pretty sure that one’s going to come back,” Wideman said after the first multigoal performance of his 481-game NHL career. He set off a cascade of hats onto the ice when his screened slapper from the left point beat James Reimer with 1:19 left in regulation.
For his part, a laughing Laich wouldn’t say whether Wideman’s shot hit him.
“Don’t want to talk about that,” he said.
The NHL agreed a day later, switching the goal from Wideman to Laich and taking away what would have been the first hat trick by a Washington defenseman since Sergei Gonchar had one on Jan. 4, 2000, and just the third in the regular season by a Caps blueliner since the team entered the NHL in 1974.
Either way, it was the night of a lifetime for Wideman.
“Dennis is a smart player and he knows when to pass and when to shoot and he was bang on tonight with it,” said Caps coach Dale Hunter, who is now 3-3-0 in his NHL coaching career. “It’s all decisions to make for a good power play. You have to read the defense just like a quarterback does. So he shot some and he passed some, great decisions by him.”
The Caps (15-12-1) came into the game with the NHL’s 22nd-ranked power play at 15.2 percent and mired in a 3-for-51 slump, but took advantage of a Toronto penalty-killing unit that was 28th at 76.0 percent to win for the third time in four games.
Phil Kessel and Cody Franson scored for the Maple Leafs (15-11-3), who lost for the second straight game; they allowed six power-play goals on 10 tries in the back-to-back losses.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot tonight,” Reimer said. “I thought we really out played them. We just took a few too many penalties.”
The Caps appeared to be in control after Wideman’s perfect pass from the top of the right circle found Backstrom in front for an easy tap-in at 18:50 of the second period with one second left on a 5-on-3 advantage for a 3-1 lead.
“We were working it around pretty good,” Wideman said. “I had some opportunities on the 5-on-3 and I got that pass in the slot, I was thinking I could maybe get one, and then I saw Nicky open on the back door and I had to give it to him.”
But after the Leafs killed off an interference penalty to John-Michael Liles midway through the third period, they made it a one-goal game with 6:44 remaining in regulation when Cody Franson barely kept the puck in at the right point and slung a wrister at the net. The shot went through traffic and past a screened Tomas Vokoun, who finished with 26 saves.
However, Joey Crabb accidentally high-sticked John Carlson with 2:14 remaining, and the Caps answered with their fourth power-play goal in just six chances. It was Washington’s first game with four power-play goals since an 8-2 win against Philadelphia on Dec. 5, 2009.
But Wideman insisted — correctly, as it turned out — that the goal wasn’t his.
“I’ve never had one before. Still haven’t had one,” he said after the game when asked about getting his first hat trick.
Washington opened the scoring at 12:33 of the opening period on its first power play of the night. With rookie Jake Gardiner in the box for slashing, Wideman ripped a wrister from well inside the right circle past Reimer for his fourth goal of the season and first since Nov. 1.
It became 2-0 at 1:49 of the second period, 11 seconds after the Leafs were penalized for having too many men on the ice, when Wideman wound up for a straightaway 50-foot slapper that went through traffic and past Reimer.
Kessel regained a share of the NHL’s goal-scoring lead at 12:52 when he wristed a rebound off Vokoun and into the net for his 18th goal, tying him with Ottawa’s Milan Michalek for the most in the League.
Leafs coach Ron Wilson said the reason for the loss was simple.
“Five-on-five, I thought we controlled and at times dominated the game,” Wilson said. “We didn’t have much puck luck the way some of the things bounced around the net — but bad penalties, undisciplined penalties did us in tonight, simple as that.”