GAME SUMMARIES
Updated: Saturday February 26, 2000 10:33PM EST
Friday February 25, 2000 Toronto at New Jersey
Heading down the stretch, the Toronto Maple Leafs are starting to get back on track, something that can't be said of the New Jersey Devils.Igor Korolev and Garry Valk came within a second of scoring short-handed goals when they tallied 17 seconds apart, and Toronto defeated New Jersey 3-1 on Friday night, extending the Devils' winless streak to five, their longest since 1995.
Curtis Joseph had 30 saves as the Maple Leafs won their second straight after going winless in six (0-5-1). Toronto is 2-0-1 against New Jersey this season.
"It was a huge win for us," Valk said. "We were gaining confidence shift after shift. Going from where we were last week, it was a huge step."
Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin said no one on the team wanted to take a step back after beating Phoenix on Wednesday.
"It was a great test for our team playing the best team in the conference," Sundin said. "We came out on top and I thought we were the better team pretty much the whole game. That's a great sign for us. It answers a lot of question marks about our team."
The loss was the fourth straight for New Jersey (0-4-1). The last time it lost that many in a row or was winless this long was in a six-game streak in November 1995. The Devils' frustration showed at the final buzzer as the teams got into a shoving match in front of the Toronto bench.
"I won't call it a skid, because that's usually followed by a crash," Devils center Bobby Holik said. "All I can say is it's probably better for it to happen now than a month from now. Obviously no one is enjoying this but what can you do. We're just not playing well. It's a long year."
The only goal Joseph gave up was by Patrik Elias with the Devils on a two-man power play.
However, the Maple Leafs broke the game open with the Devils on a power play.
The Devils were on a power play when Korolev snapped a 1-1 tie at 6:50 of the third period.
Korolev made the play at both ends of the ice. He knocked down Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer during a battle along the boards, setting up a 3-on-2 break. Passes went from Korolev to Dmitry Yushkevich to Tomas Kaberle back to Yushkevich back to Korolev, who beat Chris Terreri from the right circle.
Valk got his eighth goal by blocking a shot by New Jersey defenseman Sheldon Souray and beating Terreri on a breakaway just as Darcy Tucker was stepping back onto the ice after a hooking penalty.
"Cujo made some big saves and then we went down and got the shorthanded one," Valk said. "Then my goal. Obviously it stunned them."
Elias tied the game 1-1 at 12:04 of the second period as the Devils capitalized on a couple Maple Leafs mistakes on and off the ice.
The first error came when someone on the Toronto bench said a little too much to referee Mark Faucette and picked up a bench minor. The Maple Leafs killed off all but 20 seconds of that penalty when Tucker took a boarding penalty, creating a two-man advantage.
Thirteen seconds later, Elias got his 26th goal, taking a nice pass from Petr Sykora and beating Joseph under the crossbar.
After failing to convert on five power plays and 15 shots against Terreri in a scoreless first period, Toronto needed only 2:18 to get on the scoreboard in the second. Yanic Perreault got the goal on a quick rush, putting in the rebound of a shot by Tucker.
Wednesday February 23, 2000 Phoenix at Toronto
Darcy Tucker finally has something positive to show for his brief stay with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Tucker scored his first two goals for Toronto as the Maple Leafs beat Phoenix 5-3 on Wednesday night, snapping a season-high six-game winless streak.
"When I came in the room after the game, the guys were cheering for me, and that gives me a great sense of pride, not only about myself but about this hockey club," Tucker said.
"It just shows how close we are as a team. Hopefully, I've solidified any doubts about what I bring to a hockey team. I'm just a hard-working guy."
Tucker, acquired in Feb. 9 trade with Tampa Bay, gave the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead with 3:52 left in the second period, diving head first into the crease to poke the puck past goalie Bob Essensa.Tucker made it 4-2 with 8:25 left in the third period, deflecting Brian Berard's shot from the point into the top corner. Tucker has 16 goals this season.
Alyn McCauley, Jonas Hoglund and Yanic Perreault also scored for Toronto, 0-5-1 during the winless streak. Shane Doan, Jeremy Roenick and Teppo Numminen scored for the Coyotes.
Numminen scored with 3:14 left in the third to bring Phoenix within a goal, but Perreault countered with an empty-net goal with 53 seconds remaining.
Toronto's Curtis Joseph made 22 saves for his 26th victory.
"We put out some good pressure," Roenick said. "Cujo made some big, big saves. ... They got some timely goals -- we didn't."
Phoenix dropped a 1-0 decision in Montreal on Tuesday night.
"We think that we played two very solid games," Doan said. "We didn't make too many mistakes, but when we did they capitalized."
Saturday February 19, 2000 Toronto at Montreal
Even Oleg Petrov couldn't remember his last NHL goal.
The speedy Petrov, who spent the last three seasons playing in Switzerland, got his first NHL goal in over four years to help the Montreal Canadiens to a 2-1 victory over the slumping Toronto Leafs.
His last NHL goal came on Dec. 6, 1995, against New Jersey.
"For sure, it's been a long time since I scored in the NHL," said Petrov, after he scored in his 20th game of the season.
"I didn't even score any in training camp. I'm glad to get it."
Petrov, who played for the Swiss team Ambri-Piotta, led the league with 93 points in 1997-98, and 83 last season. In parts of four previous seasons with the Canadiens, Petrov scored 20 goals.
"I knew I just had to keep working hard," he said.
Petrov added an assist on Sergei Zholtok's goal as the Canadiens extended their season-high winning streak to five while the Maple Leafs' season-worst winless run stretched to six (0-5-1).
"The first three months of the season, we found ways to win," Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph said. "Now it seems like we can't find any way to win. It's been tough sledding." Sergei Zholtok also scored for the Canadiens, who moved into a tie with the idle Boston Bruins, one of three teams they need to get past to challenge for a playoff spot.
Steve Thomas scored his 15th of the season in the first period for Toronto, which outshot Montreal 26-24. Thomas put a high blast past the glove side of Jeff Hackett during a power play with 1:48 left in the period. Montreal beat the Maple Leafs for the first time in four meetings this season, in front of a crowd of 21,273 at the Molson Centre. Petrov took a feed from Zholtok on a 2-on-1, cut to the net and slipped the puck past Curtis Joseph 1:35 into the second.
Zholtok was helped off the ice at 9:04 of the second period after taking a slash on the back of the knee from Kevyn Adams, but returned moments later to put Montreal in the lead.
Petrov slipped the puck to Zholtok, whose low blast from the high slot beat Joseph at 17:14 for his team-leading 19th goal of the season.
The stocky, 5-foot-8 Petrov, who first played for Montreal from 1992-96, spent much of the early season in the minors, but had been playing on a line with Zholtok and Dainius Zubrus when he blew out a knee and missed 22 games.
Since his return on Feb. 10, the line has done well.
"You saw me jumping around more than (Petrov) when he scored," Zholtok said. "He deserved it. He's probably the smallest guy on the team, but he's the guy who probably works the hardest. We told him it was going to come. It's a big lift for him."
Canadiens coach Alain Vigneault said Petrov "is not a natural scorer, but when that line is on, we spend more time in the other team's end than our own.
"He keeps his legs moving. He skates and causes turnovers."
Wednesday February 16, 2000 Boston at Toronto
The Toronto Maple Leafs earned a tie they could live with.
After facing a first-period deficit for the ninth time in 11 games, Toronto battled back and emerged with a 3-3 draw against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night. It was only a tie, yet it ended a four-game losing streak for the relieved Maple Leafs.
"We've had problems with our confidence after losing like we have recently," captain Mats Sundin said. "We played better as the game went on and did everything we could to win. But we'll take the tie for sure. Hopefully, we can build on it."
Nik Antropov and Yanic Perreault scored second-period goals to erase a 2-1 deficit and give the Maple Leafs their first lead going into the third period in seven games.
Dmitri Khristich scored for Toronto in the opening period and assisted on Antropov's goal. Khristich, who wore a full face shield, returned to the lineup to face his ex-teammates after getting his three front teeth knocked out by a puck Saturday.
Andre Savage scored the tying goal for Boston at 6:32 of the third. Joe Thornton and Shawn Bates also scored for Boston, which tied for the sixth time in 15 games. The Bruins lead the NHL with 16 draws.
After 14 straight starts, Byron Dafoe almost got a night off in the Boston goal. Rob Tallas, who played well in stopping 27 of 30 shots, left the game with 4:20 remaining in overtime after he hurt his glove hand stopping a Bryan Berard slap shot. Dafoe made just one save.
"It's a split fracture of the fourth finger, the exact same injury I had earlier this year," Tallas said. "That's what happens when they make goalie equipment smaller."
Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph was named a game star after making 30 saves.
"It was a better team effort," Joseph said. "If we keep playing this way, we're going to win some games. Our forwards played very gritty in our end."
The Bruins entered the game in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and tried a new approach to open up the attack.
"Did you notice we're not trapping anymore?" asked Boston coach Pat Burns. "We're sending two guys in to forecheck rather than one. We had a lot more jump and some chances. We just have to have some more finish around the net."
The Maple Leafs were 0-for-5 on the power play, including one in the final 99 seconds of regulation time. Toronto has one power-play goal in 31 opportunities in seven games.
Toronto is third in the Eastern Conference with a record of 30-21-7-3. Boston has just one win in seven games.
Monday February 14, 2000 Carolina at Toronto
Recently it hasn't taken long for things to go badly for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Leafs fell behind by two Monday night for the 10th time in 13 games and lost 5-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes.
"We're lousy right now and we have to change it," coach Pat Quinn said of the Maple Leafs, who lost their fourth in a row for the first time since April 1998 and the first time under Quinn's direction.
"We could say maybe if we score first then everything is going to be alright, but it won't," Quinn said. "We have to get some confidence back and start doing the little things well."
Ron Francis scored two goals to extend Carolina's winning streak to three games. Dave Karpa, Glen Wesley and Rod Brind'Amour also scored for the Hurricanes and Robert Kron had two assists.
"I think we played well. We beat the Islanders and Tampa and nobody gets too excited about that," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. "It's good to see the guys get this one."
Carolina's Arturs Irbe made 20 saves, including stopping Kevyn Adams on a penalty shot 4:02 into the third.
The Leafs, who hadn't lost to the Hurricanes in five games (3-0-2), found themselves down 2-0 just 4:06 into the game and eventually trailed 4-2 after 14 minutes.
"It's a tough thing to swallow. You just have to get through it," enforcer Tie Domi said. "I don't have an answer. We're going through a tough time. Everybody cares here."
Wesley opened the scoring for Carolina on a wide-open slap shot from the point that Curtis Joseph misplayed. Karpa also scored from the point.
Nik Antropov and Alexander Karpovtsev tallied for Toronto. Joseph, who has struggled since Christmas, had a dismal outing and stopped only 28 of 33 shots.
The Leafs cut it to 2-1 when Antropov converted a rebound off a Darcy Tucker shot at 5:37 of the first and Karpovtsev tied it midway through the period on a power play with a wrist shot from the point that fooled Irbe.
But the Hurricanes kept the pressure on as Francis deflected a shot in front and Brind'Amour made it 4-2 on Carolina's 10th shot.
Brind'Amour, who has struggled since coming over from Philadelphia for Keith Primeau, sneaked through three Leafs and put a nice deke on Joseph at 13:51 for his third point in nine games with the Hurricanes.
"He's just the complete player," Francis said. "It says a lot that he's playing hurt for the hockey club, but he's done that his entire career. He's been a nice addition."
Francis snapped a shot past Joseph at 13:58 of the second, putting the game out of reach.
"We're in the fear stage," Quinn said. "A lot of guys didn't want it and were afraid of making mistakes.
"Unless we get some confidence back, we have to start doing the little things well. We're cheating so much. How many passes did we make tonight? Not too many."
Saturday February 12, 2000 Vancouver at Toronto
Just when the Vancouver Canucks figured they had the injury bug beat, it bit them again.
Alexander Mogilny went down with a shoulder injury early in the first period Saturday night in the Canucks' 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"He separated a shoulder," coach Marc Crawford said. "He'll be out for at least a week and maybe a little bit more."
Earlier this week, Vancouver lost defenseman Adrian Aucoin for five weeks because of a hand injury. The Canucks have lost 237 man-games to injuries.
"We just seemed to get healthy again and, here we go again, we lose Aucoin and Mogilny," captain Mark Messier said. "It's really disappointing that we can't stay healthy."
Todd Bertuzzi scored twice and former Maple Leafs goalie Felix Potvin won in his first start in three weeks.
"It's good to finally get a win against my old team," Potvin said. "We're desperate for wins. We played an almost perfect game. We didn't give them many chances, and we buried ours."
Ed Jovanovski and Andrew Cassels also scored for the Canucks, who won consecutive games for the first time since November.
Jonas Hoglund scored for Toronto, which fell behind 2-0 for the ninth time in 12 games and has lost two straight for the first time this season.
Potvin got his first victory in nine starts since Dec. 22, and only his second win in 10 appearances since being traded from the New York Islanders to the Canucks on Dec. 19.
"He was superb," Jovanovski said of Potvin. "He became a star in this city and he showed why."
Bertuzzi gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead when he redirected Mogilny's pass 3:26 into the game.
Jovanovski gathered in Messier's pass and took a shot that struck Healy's leg pads and dropped behind the goalie at 8:02 to give Vancouver a 2-0 lead.
Maple Leafs goalie Glenn Healy made a diving save on Markus Naslund's shot to keep Vancouver from going up by three goals before the first period ended. A good portion of the crowd booed the Leafs off the ice.
Cassels scored the only goal of the second period at 5:55 when Toronto's Wendel Clark had the puck on the boards in his own zone, but sent an ill-advised pass across the middle. Cassels took the puck, skated in alone on Healy, and flipped a wrist shot through Healy's legs.
Hoglund converted a cross-crease pass from Sundin at 4:46 into the third to give Toronto a 3-1 lead.
Bertuzzi added an empty-netter with 1:19 left.
Wednesday February 9, 2000 Philadelphia at Toronto
The Toronto Maple Leafs had a slow start that even they couldn't dig out from.
Eric Lindros scored two goals and the Philadelphia Flyers staved off Toronto's third-period rally to hang on for a 4-2 victory Wednesday night over the Maple Leafs.
Toronto, which came back to win or tie four of its last seven games, outshot the Flyers 16-10 in the third period. The Maple Leafs narrowed the margin to 3-2 on Mats Sundin's breakaway goal, but couldn't produce the equalizer.
Toronto has trailed after the first period in seven of 10 games and have led just twice in 15 games heading into the second.
"We're missing something that causes us to start as slowly as we do," said coach Pat Quinn of the Maple Leafs, who trailed 2-0. "A lot of the fault is we try to do too many things early in the game. A lot of individuals have made errors lately and that has cost us goals."
Simon Gagne and Mark Recchi scored for Philadelphia, which won just once in nine games prior to the All-Star break.
Toronto had four power-play opportunities in the first period alone, yet were outshot 16-5. Recchi scored the winning goal at 12:41 of the second period and Lindros got his second of the night for insurance with 1:46 remaining.
Dmitri Khristich got his 10th goal on a second-period backhand for Toronto.
"We're almost too eager to get a lead in the first period," Sundin said. "We had so many power-play chances, but didn't capitalize. We'll be fine if we cut down on our mistakes."
Philadelphia, which has three games in hand, moved within four points of second-place Toronto in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia killed off all seven Toronto power plays.
"Our penalty killing won us the game, no question," Flyers coach Roger Neilson said.
"We did a great job defensively," said rookie goalie Brian Boucher, who made 26 saves. "That's the thing with penalty killing, it's either going to kill you or you get energy off it. It gave us momentum tonight."
Lindros opened the scoring at 16:02 of the first period on the power play when he fired a wrist shot from 35 feet over the Curtis Joseph's glove.
Then with Toronto on the power play, Joseph stopped Gagne on a breakaway, but the puck looped through the air and fell down just across the goal line with less than a second remaining.
"We probably had double the amount of scoring opportunities they did," Neilson said. "We had a bigger edge than the score showed."
Recchi was credited with the winning goal when his centering pass hit Joseph's stick and went in to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead. Just 35 seconds earlier, Khristich got Toronto on the board when his backhander beat Boucher.
Defenseman Gerald Diduck had one assist in his season debut for the Maple Leafs. He was signed from Canada's national team as an unrestricted free agent on Jan. 28.
Earlier Wednesday, Toronto traded left wing Mike Johnson, minor-league defenseman Marek Posmyk, and fifth- and sixth-round draft picks to the Tampa Bay Lightning for center Darcy Tucker and a fourth-round draft pick.
Thursday February 3, 2000 Toronto at Boston
For Kyle McLaren and the Boston Bruins, it was about time the puck took a bounce in their favor.
After nearly blowing a 3-0 lead, McLaren scored on a 75-foot slap shot from beyond the blue line with 6:26 remaining to give the Bruins a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night.
"Usually I dump them in, but for some reason I decided to shoot it on net," McLaren said. "I can't even tell you why, but I was just lucky it went in. Usually the breaks go the other teams' way."
Byron Dafoe made 19 saves and Sergei Samsonov, Cameron Mann and Joe Thornton added goals for Boston, which won for just the second time at home in 12 games.
Toronto's three-game winning streak ended with the loss.
Boston took a 1-0 lead just 4:29 into the game when Samsonov beat Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph with a back-hander on the power play. Darren Van Impe and Ray Bourque assisted on the goal.
The Bruins went ahead 2-0 when Mann, recalled from Providence of the AHL earlier in the day, scored his first goal of the season on a one-timer from Andre Savage midway into the first period.
"We weren't good early and there were bonehead plays by the defense," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "We got down so fast, we didn't even have time to think."
The Maple Leafs, who fell behind 2-0 in six of their last nine games and fought back to win or tie five of them, weren't able to come back against the Bruins.
"It's tough mentally to battle back when you get behind like that every game," Joseph said. "This is a good time for everybody to take a break. We haven't been playing our best."
After Thornton's 14th goal gave Boston a three-goal advantage, Dafoe's shutout bid came to an end 4:47 into the third. Mats Sundin scored his team-leading 25th goal on a shot from the slot to make it 3-1.
Less than two minutes later, Toronto's Mike Johnson's shot from inside the point deflected off McLaren and snuck into the corner of the net past Dafoe.
But McLaren made up for it when his long slap shot slipped between Joseph's pads to put the game away.
"That was a good break and a tough shot," Bourque said. "It got deflected and dropped about two feet."
Joseph finished with 20 saves.
The Bruins played without veteran forward Joe Murphy, who was suspended without pay Thursday until further notice as punishment for what the club said was an act of insubordination.
Murphy was involved in an argument with Bruins coach Pat Burns.
"There were no distractions," McLaren said. "Murph is a good player and to lose a player of his skill is going to be tough. But we believe in our coach. I stick behind our coach."
Burns was reluctant to comment on the situation.
"This has been going on for a couple of weeks now and the whole thing has been settled and we're going to move on," Burns said.
Tuesday February 1, 2000 Toronto at Tampa
Wendel Clark gave a performance reminiscent of his past times in a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater.
Clark, who rejoined the Maple Leafs as a free agent Jan. 14, had two goals, including the go-ahead tally with 5:45 left in the third period, as the Maple Leafs rallied from a three-goal deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 Tuesday night.
"It's always nice to get a couple, but it's always better to go out and get the win," Clark said. "Going into the third period, we didn't know what was going to happen. It's always nice to help out in more than a physical presence."
Clark scored his first Toronto goal since April 4, 1998, on a three-on-one break at 9:23 of the third that cut Tampa Bay's lead to 3-2.
"He's that kind of guy ... he can probably look like he's not doing much for much of the night," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "His history has been that he has a great shot and knows where to put the puck."
After Mats Sundin's backhander tied it, Clark put the Maple Leafs ahead with a waist-high deflection of Tomas Kaberle's shot.
"It got to 3-2, and it just seemed like they kept coming," Tampa Bay goalie Dan Cloutier said. "We knew they'd come out in the third period and they took it to us."
Igor Korolev added an empty-net goal to complete the Maple Leafs' four-goal third period.
"They showed why they're a great team," Tampa Bay coach Steve Ludzik said. "I know our guys are probably disappointed and shocked ... like they were hit with a sledgehammer."
Sundin also had two assists and has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) during a seven-game point streak. Jonas Hoglund had three assists and has nine points in five games.
Maple Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph stopped 21 shots, and improved to 13-2-2 against Tampa Bay.
Toronto has beaten the Lightning nine straight times overall and the last nine meetings at Tampa Bay.
Mike Sillinger picked up his team-leading 16th goal in the first period for the Lightning, who have won just twice in the past 22 games (2-18-2).
Second-period goals by Pavel Kubina -- on the power play -- and Chris Gratton gave the Lightning a 3-0 lead.
"We were sloppy, we were outworked early on ... we were in a fog out there," Quinn said. "They pressed and got caught for that three-on-one, and you could see something happen to them."
Steve Thomas extended his goal-scoring streak to four-games -- totaling six goals -- with a second-period score that made it 3-1.
Tampa Bay went 9� minutes without a shot in the first period before getting three -- including Sillinger's goal -- in a 21-second span.
Toronto enforcer Tie Domi returned after missing seven games with a rib injury.