Leafs Top Canadians
Posted March 21, 2010 1:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and their youthful roster continue to play spoiler.
John Mitchell had the shootout winner, Phil Kessel scored his team-leading 28th goal and Jonas Gustavsson won his fifth straight start for Toronto as the Maple Leafs downed the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Saturday night. Those players are all 25 or younger – as are many others on the current roster.
“We’re seeing that some of these kids, they look like they can play,” Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “They’re playing in live-fire situations right now against teams that are really battling. The points are huge for these teams we’re playing.
“It’s their first time getting those opportunities – it’s not like you get to a point where you’ve been mathematically eliminated and all of a sudden some of your guys show up and relax and start playing. These guys are basically playing for their jobs and it’s fun to see how hard they compete.”
Toronto has won six of seven and is playing its best hockey of the season. Four of those wins came in extra time, an area where the Leafs struggled mightily early.
Mitchell and Nikolai Kulemin each scored in the shootout against Montreal’s Jaroslav Halak, who had allowed just one shootout goal on 16 attempts coming into the game. Gustavsson turned aside two of the three Canadiens shooters.
The rookie goalie has been alternating starts with J.S. Giguere and is looking more comfortable with each passing week.
“I think it’s a good setup for me,” Gustavsson said. “It’s perfect.”
