Leafs Stun Slumping Sens
Posted February 2, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For a while on Saturday, the limping Maple Leafs gave their fans a reason to forget about an otherwise terrible season.
In front of a full house at the Air Canada something to cheer about by outplaying Eastern Conference leader Ottawa 4-2 on Saturday night.
Toronto , using makeshift forward lines in coping with an onslaught of injuries, remained 14th in the conference but first in the hearts of most of the 19,543 spectators.
Of course the Senators have their own injury woes, and on Saturday looked nothing like the team that led the East for most of the season. In fact, with Montreal beating the New York Islanders 4-1 earlier Saturday, the Canadiens now are within three points of the slumping Senators, who are 3-7 in their last 10.
Dominic Moore and Jiri Tlusty staked Toronto to a two-goal lead, until goals by Nick Foligno late in the first period and by Chris Neil early in the third tied it. Normally, that would’ve spelled the end of the Buds’ effort, but on this night the Leafs managed to pull ahead to stay on goals by Carlo Colaiacovo and Jason Blake. That Paul Maurice’s club didn’t take a penalty all night was a big reason why.
On the flip side, six penalties had been assessed by the middle of the second period — all against Ottawa , including three to Andrej Meszaros. The Leafs, who entered the game ranked 28th in the league with manpower advantages, couldn’t capitalize, but managed to get the job done at even strength.
The final shots count was 26-21 in Toronto ‘s favour.
The Leafs play at home Tuesday against Florida , are in Montreal on Thursday and are back home to face Detroit on Saturday. The Senators play the Canadiens in Montreal on Tuesday.
