Leafs Open Second Half With Loss To Blues
Posted January 29, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Keith Tkachuk scored on his team’s first two shots of the game Tuesday night and the St. Louis Blues ended a seven-game winless streak with a 3-2 win over the floundering Toronto Maple Leafs.
David Backes had a goal and an assist for the Blues (23-19-7), who had gone 0-5-2 before the all-star break but improved to 5-1-1 against Eastern Conference teams this season.
Toronto native Manny Legace, with family and friends in the crowd, stood tall in net for St. Louis despite spending 11 hours in the Atlanta airport Monday trying to leave the all-star festivities. He also didn’t take part in Tuesday morning’s pre-game skate because his equipment had not yet showed up. But he started anyway Tuesday and was solid, stopping 23 shots.
Matt Stajan and Jason Blake had the goals for the Maple Leafs (20-24-8), their line with Darcy Tucker — who had two assists — clearly the best for Toronto on the night.
Rookie Jiri Tlusty’s promotion to the top line with captain Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov didn’t generate into much. But he’s only 19 and the need to give him a long look as they continue to sit 14th in the Eastern Conference.
Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala faced only 19 shots in the loss — the fewest shots against allowed by Toronto this season.
With 17 scouts from 15 different NHL teams in the press box looking on, the Leafs gave up the opening goal, a video review allowing Tkachuk’s deflection to stand just 1:18 into the game.
It was 2-0 just 4:23 later when Jay Mckee set up Tkachuk in front for a re-direct that beat Toskala through the legs, making it two goals on two shots for the Blues.
Toskala rebounded moments later with a huge pad save on what looked like a sure goal by Backes during a Blues power play and then a nifty glove save on Lee Stempniak a few shifts later.
That seemed to spark the Leafs, who had more jump in their game. Blake cut the Blues’ lead to 2-1 when he patiently outwaited Legace and rifled a shot top corner over the sprawled goalie at 12:17, waking up a dormant Air Canada Centre crowd of 19,323.
Legace then made a series of big saves on a Leafs power play that had several chances.
The Leafs carried the play early in the second period, enough to make Blues head coach Andy Murray take a rare second-period timeout to wake up his skaters.
It worked. The Blues now were charging and had the Leafs on their heels.
Backes finally made the momentum shift count when he banged home a loose puck in the slot at 10:55 to make it 3-1. Paul Kariya made the play happen with a superb cross-ice pass just inside the Toronto blue-line to Erik Johnson, whose blast left a rebound for Backes to pounce on.
The Leafs got back into it out of a broken play. Tucker’s wide slap shot bounced behind the net to Blake, who then passed it between his legs out to Stajan, who one-timed it over Legace at 15:11.
St. Louis went 0-for-3 on the power play while Toronto was 0-for-4.
