Leafs Beat Predators For Third Straight Win
Posted December 4, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s still far too early to plan a parade route, but at the very least the Toronto Maple Leafs are starting to look like a hockey club.
After a stretch that led to calls for the proverbial heads of Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr. and head coach Paul Maurice, Toronto’s picked up seven of a possible eight points in four games, winning its third straight with an easy 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators Tuesday night.
The Buds never trailed in the game, in fact they were out in front from the first minute of action when Nik Antropov popped a rebound past Chris Mason to stake a home side slowly growing in confidence to a 1-0 lead.
In fact, things went so good for the Leafs Tuesday night that even Wade Belak scored a goal, putting the finishing touches on a lead Vesa Toskala had little trouble protecting.
Matt Stajan scroed Toronto ‘s other marker, while Belak’s was his first in four years. With the win they improve their points total to 28 in 28 games and jumped over the idle New York Islanders into eighth place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
Nashville got a goal from Shea Weber while peppering Toskala was 35 shots. Toronto had a season-low 15 shots on Mason. It was the fewest shots the Leafs had taken since Nov. 17, but on this night it was about quality, not quantity.
Toskala lost his shutout on Weber’s low shot from the blue-line at 14:05 of the third, giving Weber his first of the season. Toronto ‘s next action comes Thursday in New York against the Rangers.
