TORONTO -- Kirk Muller and Mats Sundin each had a goal and an assist and Felix Potvin turned aside 28 shots as the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 Saturday night.
Tie Domi and Nathan Dempsey also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have posted consecutive wins for just the second time in 1997. Dempsey's goal was his first in the NHL and gave Toronto a 4-0 lead late in the second period.
Potvin improved to 9-4-1 lifetime against Vancouver, stopping 21 shots over the first two periods before allowing a pair of third-period tallies.
"All in all I thought it was a good effort, especially early in the game," Leafs coach Mike Murphy said. "We were a lot hungrier than Vancouver early and that was when the game was settled. Felix was a star tonight, he was the difference in the game. He came up with big, big saves."
"We won two in a row but we can't be too satisfied because we have a lot of teams to catch," Potvin said.
Jyrki Lumme and Mike Ridley scored for the Canucks, who have lost four of their last five games. Mike Ridley extended his point-scoring streak to four games (3-3-6) while Trevor Linden, who assisted on Lumme's tally, pushed his streak to three straight games (0-6-6).
"You get down by four and I think you see more chances," Linden said. "I think the game was lost in the first half (of the game) and that is something we are doing more frequently."
Muller put the Leafs on top 4:45 into the contest when he took a pass from Todd Warriner, who was stationed behind the net, and tapped it past Vancouver goaltender Kirk McLean.
Domi extended the advantage to 2-0 when Sundin broke into the offensive zone and left a drop pass for Dimitri Yuskevich. Yuskevich then fired a shot on net but McLean made a pad save. The rebound slid to Domi, who pushed it into an empty net for his seventh goal.
Sundin's 32nd goal of the season came on the power play, 52 seconds into the second period. Dempsey then broke into the career scoring column by taking advantage of a scramble in front of McLean. After Darby Hendrickson's spin-o-rama was denied by McLean, Dempsey gathered in the puck and wristed the puck into the lower right corner of the net.
"I was coming out of the corner and Darby tried a spin-o-rama it hit my skate and it hit my stick. I spun around and fortunately it went in. It is something you always dream about. To score my first goal in Maple Leafs Garden is something special."
Toronto has won two of the three meetings between the teams this season.
Jon's 3 stars:
1. Kirk Muller
2. Felix Potvin
3. Jyrki Lumme
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