GAME DAY PREVIEWS
Updated: Saturday April 8, 2000 4:27PM EST
Saturday April 8, 2000 Tampa Bay at Toronto 7pm
The Toronto Maple Leafs hope for their first-ever 100-point season while continuing their dominance of the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight when the teams meet at Air Canada Centre. Toronto moved within two points of the century mark with Friday's 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders. Steve Thomas scored the eventual game-winner on the power play while Glen Healy stopped 19 shots.
The win locked Toronto, which is playing its season finale, into the third seed in the Eastern Conference and the Leafs will face provincial rival Ottawa in the opening round of the playoffs.
Maple Leafs center Darcy Tucker will face his former teammates for the first time since being traded for Mike Johnson in early February. Tucker has six goals in 16 points in the 25 games since the deal while Johnson has nine goals and 11 assists in 26 contests.
Toronto has won nine straight against Tampa Bay and has not lost to the Lightning since October 12, 1996.
Tampa Bay lost for the second time in three games with Thursday's 5-1 loss at Montreal. Rookie goaltender Dieter Kochan stopped only nine of 13 shots before being replaced by Zac Bierk, who made 21 saves over the final 29 minutes.
The Lightning have surrendered 13 goals over their last three games, while scoring seven. Five of those tallies came in a win against Boston.
Friday April 7, 2000 Toronto at Ny Islanders 7:30pm
The New York Islanders host the Toronto Maple Leafs one night after helping them clinch their first division title in 37 years. Brad Isbister scored with 8:18 remaining in the third period to give New York a 2-1 victory over Ottawa on Thursday. That result gave the Leafs their first division crown since 1962-63.
The Maple Leafs need victories tonight and Saturday at home against Tampa Bay to reach the 100-point mark for the first time in the team's storied history. By winning the Northeast Division, Toronto will be seeded no lower than third in the playoffs.
The Leafs have lost three of their last four games, but can still catch No. 2 Washington with a pair of wins and two Capital losses.
"The next games are so important," right winger Steve Thomas said. "Not in terms of the standings, but for our confidence going into the playoffs. We need two solid efforts starting with Friday night against the Islanders."
Thomas has collected points in five of the last six games, scoring three times and adding four assists. The only game in which he did not score was in a 4-0 blanking at Chicago.
Goaltender Stephen Valiquette recorded his second victory in as many starts in Thursday's triumph for the Islanders, making 45 saves. In his two wins, he has turned aside 92 shots.
New York needs to win either tonight or Sunday here against Florida to avoid its first 50-loss season since going 22-50-10 in 1995-96.
After losing two straight against Toronto earlier this season, the Islanders bounced back with a convincing 5-2 victory at the Air Canada Centre on March 11. Mariusz Czerkawski and Claude Lapointe each scored twice for New York.
Wednesday April 5, 2000 Pittsburgh at Toronto 7:30pm
The Toronto Maple Leafs look to wrap up the Northeast Division title while the Pittsburgh Penguins can lock up an Eastern Conference playoff berth Wednesday night when the teams meet at the Air Canada Centre. Toronto could not produce a shot in the second period and lost at Buffalo on Monday, 3-2. The defeat prevented the Leafs from clinching their first division title since the 1962-63 season, when they won the Stanley Cup.
Mats Sundin and Sergei Berezin scored for Leafs, whose chances of catching New Jersey for the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs took a major hit. Berezin has seven goals and three assists in his last eight games.
Toronto, which needs four points to reach the century mark for the first time in the franchise's storied history, is five behind the Devils with only three games remaining.
Pittsburgh has won six of its last eight games and can seal a tenth straight playoff berth with a victory tonight. The Penguins improved their position with Monday's 3-2 victory over Carolina, which dropped to ninth in the East, four points behind Pittsburgh with only two to play.
But the win was costly as goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin suffered an injured left ankle early in the third period and did not return. If he cannot play tonight, veteran Ron Tugnutt will get the start.
Pittsburgh center Tyler Wright hurt his knee in Monday's game and is day-to-day.
The Penguins have a three-point lead over Buffalo in the battle for seventh overall in the East and can clinch the spot with two more victories.
Pittsburgh has won two of the three meetings with Toronto this season. A Leafs' win tonight will split the series for the second consecutive season.
Monday April 3, 2000 Toronto at Buffalo 7pm
The Buffalo Sabres hope to reclaim the eighth and final playoff in the Eastern Conference when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. The Sabres are tied with Montreal for ninth-place, one point behind Carolina, which plays at Pittsburgh tonight.
Buffalo received 27 saves from superstar goaltender Dominik Hasek in a 2-0 blanking of Montreal on Saturday. Captain Michael Peca and Vaclav Varada each tallied for the Sabres, who won for the fifth time in the last six games.
Montreal pulled into a ninth-place tie with the Sabres, receiving a point for losing in overtime to Detroit later Sunday night.
With one game in hand, Buffalo has four games remaining on the schedule. After tonight's contest, the Sabres travel to New Jersey and host Pittsburgh on back-to-back nights before finishing at Washington on Sunday.
Hasek has been living up to his nickname of "The Dominator" over the last six games. He is 5-1 and has allowed three goals in a game just once and one goal against three teams over that stretch.
Toronto fired just 19 shots on goal, but made the most of them in a 4-3 victory over red-hot Washington on Saturday. Yanic Perreault scored and notched an assist while captain Mats Sundin collected a pair of assists for the Maple Leafs, who have won three of their last four outings.
With four games remaining, first-place Toronto leads Florida by four points in the Northeast Division as the Leafs try to capture their first divisional crown since 1962-63. The squad also is four points away from reaching the century mark for the first time in the club's storied history.
The Leafs have won seven of their last nine games on the road, where they are 19-17-2 on the season.
Toronto has won three of four meetings with Buffalo this season, outscoring the Sabres, 14-6, in the victories. However, the Maple Leafs were routed, 8-1, in their last visit here on New Year's Day.
Saturday April 1, 2000 Toronto at Washington 7pm
The Washington Capitals go for the Eastern Conference lead tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a battle of division leaders. Washington, which was behind by as many as 20 points for the overall conference lead, trails New Jersey by two points for the lead in the East. A win by Washington tonight would put the teams in a tie with the Caps holding the edge on the basis of season series.
Washington is close to clinching its first division title since 1988-89, when it captured the Patrick Divison regular season title. The Caps lead Florida by five points.
Sniper Peter Bondra left Thursday's 4-3 overtime defeat against Pittsburgh with an undisclosed injury, but should be able to go in time for tonight's contest. Meanwhile, center Andrei Nikolishin (abdomen) also is listed as probable.
Thursday's loss snapped a seven-game home winning streak and was only the second defeat at the MCI Center since December 27 (18-2-1).
Shedding his role as an enforcer, Chris Simon is one tally away from becoming the first Capital player besides Bondra to reach the 30-goal mark since Kevin Hatcher (34), Dimitri Khristich (31) and Bondra (37) accomplished the feat during the 1992-93 campaign.
The teams have split three games this season, most recently a 5-5 draw in Toronto on Januray 22. But Washington has won six straight here since a 2-1 decision on January 11, 1994.
Toronto also is looking to snap an even longer drought without a division title. Currently, the Maple Leafs lead Ottawa by five points for the Northeast Division crown, which would be their first regular season championship of any kind since 1962-63. In that campaign, Toronto captured its 11th Stanley Cup title.
The Leafs are coming off one of their worst performances of the season when they were blanked, 4-0, by Chicago on Thursday. The loss marked only the second time in the last 11 games that Toronto was held without a power-play goal.
The Leafs have won six of their last eight games on the road, where they are a respectable 18-17-2 on the season.