Toronto Maple Leafs

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I know there probably aren't many ice hockey fans around here but I am. My team are the Toronto Maple Leafs. They have been having a tough year but hopefully they will be getting a good draft pick. Here is their clubs site.

http://mapleleafs.nhl.com/index.html

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Former Leafs Captain, Mats Sundin makes his return to the ACC tonight with his new team, the Vancouver Canucks. It should be a good one. 6:00pm on NHL Network.

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Wouldn't you know it. Sunden scores the winning goal in the shootout over the Leafs. That sucked. It's ok, the fans in Toronto let him hear it when he handled the puck.:angry:

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Leafs pulled it out in OT by a score of 3 to 2 over the New York Rangers. Good game.

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www.nhl.com/ice/boxscore.htm?id=2008020890

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Tonight is the Leafs vs. Rangers second game

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Nikolai Kulemin scored the shootout winner on Wednesday as the Toronto Maple Leafs spoiled John Tortorella's debut with a 2-1 victory.

The Leafs rookie beat Henrik Lundqvist with the team's first attempt and watched as goalie Vesa Toskala turned aside all three shots against him.

Niklas Hagman scored in regulation for Toronto (23-26-12).

Wade Redden replied for the Rangers (31-23-8).

Tortorella hasn't had much time to work with his new team. He replaced Tom Renney on Monday and only had one full practice with the Rangers before they travelled to Toronto.

Even still, New York put together a better effort than it did during a 3-2 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs on Sunday. The visitors outplayed their opponents for large stretches on Wednesday and deserved a better fate.

It was a tedious opening 20 minutes as both teams fumbled the puck around and failed to generate any top-quality scoring chances. The most interesting moment came a little over six minutes in when Ian White and Markus Naslund dropped the gloves for a brief fight.

Neither of those players can be confused as heavyweights. In fact, it was Naslund's first fighting major since December 1993, when he squared off with Hartford's Randy Cunneyworth during his rookie season.

Another long streak came to an end in the second period when Redden opened the scoring. The much-maligned defenceman beat Toskala with a long shot at 10:26, giving him his first goal in 58 games.

Redden was one of New York's prized off-season additions and will be one of the players Tortorella tries to spark over the final 20 games.

The game started to open up after he made it 1-0, with Toskala sprawling across his crease to stop a couple chances from Petr Prucha before Toronto's Lee Stempniak hit the post at the other end.

New York's lead carried into the third period and was starting to look like it might stand up until Hagman essentially created a goal out of nothing. He made a quick move coming out of the corner and beat Lundqvist to the glove side at 10:21.

Suddenly, the Leafs had some life.

Tortorella responded by calling a timeout and that seemed to calm things down, setting the stage for the second overtime between the teams in four days.

Notes: Mark Bell didn't dress for the Rangers after being claimed on waivers earlier in the day from Toronto ... Boyd Devereaux was a healthy scratch for the Maple Leafs ... Toronto's John Mitchell and Jeff Finger each left the game with upper-body injuries ... Tortorella is the 34th coach in Rangers history ... Announced attendance at Air Canada Centre was 19,383.


Canadian Press

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The leafs won another one tonight again the Islanders 5-4.
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UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) - Tim Stapleton scored in the third round of the shootout in his NHL debut, leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 5-4 win over the New York Islanders on Thursday night.

The teams traded goals in the second round, with Jeff Tambellini scoring for the Islanders and Jason Blake answering for the Maple Leafs.

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The Islanders tied the game with 3:07 left in regulation when Jon Sim's shot from the right circle appeared to deflect off a Maple Leafs player and over Vesa Toskala's glove.

Ian White, Dominic Moore, Pavel Kubina and Nik Antropov scored for Toronto, while Toskala stopped 42 shots for his third straight victory.

Dean McAmmond, Sean Bergenheim and Mark Streit also scored for the Islanders, who are 4-1-3 in the last eight home games.

Toronto needed just 97 seconds to grab a 1-0 lead. White grabbed a puck along the left boards, moved to the top of the left circle and sent a wrist shot past Joey MacDonald, who made 31 saves.

The Maple Leafs did even better in the second period, increasing their lead to 2-0 with 57 seconds gone _ and on a short-handed goal, no less.

Former Islander Blake led a rush and passed to Moore, who took a shot from above the left circle that got by MacDonald. The short-handed goal was just Toronto's third this season, and first on the road.

The Islanders had a golden opportunity to cut Toronto's lead when Bergenheim was awarded a short-handed penalty shot at 8:23. However, Toskala made a pad save on Bergenheim's wrist shot.

New York made it 2-1 at 14:33 on McAmmond's first goal with the Islanders as he took Bill Guerin's pass in the left circle and sent a wrist shot by Toskala.

Bergenheim made up for the penalty shot miss by tying the game with a short-handed goal at 3:30 of the final period. While killing a major for elbowing to Brendan Witt, Bergenheim stole the puck at Toronto's blue-line and broke in alone on Toskala, beating him with a backhander.

Kubina restored Toronto's lead on the same power play at 5:35 with a slap shot from the high slot. Antropov made it 4-2 at 7:05 on a close-in shot.

Streit cut the lead to 4-3 at 11:29 when he faked a slap shot from the left circle, took one stride in, and beat Toskala with a wrist shot.

Notes: New York defenceman Radek Martinek was injured with 3:20 remaining, and went to the locker room... Toronto's other visit to Long Island this season, the day after Christmas, resulted in injured Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro's only victory in five starts this season.



Associated Press

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Mapleleafs vs. Senators tonight on Hockey Night In Canada.

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On Saturday night the Ottawa Senators needed to face the fact that they didn't get the goaltending they needed.

Brian Elliott couldn't come up with the big save as Pavel Kubina scored 33 seconds in overtime to give the Toronto Maple Leafs (25-26-12) a 4-3 victory. It was his second of the game.

Kubina beat Elliott through the legs on a goal the young goaltender should have stopped.

When asked about Ottawa's goaltending, coach Cory Clouston was honest.

``He was inconsistent like the rest of us,'' said Clouston. ``He made a couple of big saves, but if you look back there would be a couple goals he would want back. We're not a good enough team to have one or two bad goals.''

In comparison, Leafs coach Ron Wilson was extremely pleased with his goaltender's performance as Curtis Joseph picked up his second win of the season.

``Big thing for us is our goaltenders have made key saves when we need them,'' said Wilson. ``That builds confidence up front.''

Jamal Mayers and Tim Stapleton, playing in just his second NHL game, also scored for the Leafs. Joseph, making his first start since January 1, stopped 29 shots.

Ryan Shannon, Jarkko Ruutu and Daniel Alfredsson scored for the Senators (23-29-9), while Elliott faced 38 shots.

Toronto's blue-line was given a boost as Tomas Kaberle returned to the lineup after missing the 13 games with a broken hand and Mike Van Ryn returned from a leg injury after missing the last eight.

With both teams out of the playoff picture it was expected this latest instalment of the Battle of Ontario might lack some intensity, but the 20,050 at Scotiabank Place weren't disappointed.

``The atmosphere here in this building when we come here is as good as anywhere,'' said Joseph. ``There are lots of Leafs fans, but it gets loud and it's a great atmosphere.''

Ottawa took control of the play early on as they pinned the Leafs in their own end, but couldn't find a way to score. Minutes later Toronto's Nik Antropov had a point blank shot, but couldn't beat Elliott.

Toronto opened the scoring at the six-minute mark on a goal Elliott would most definitely want back. Mayers beat Elliott glove side with a wrist shot the Senators goaltender should have easily handled.

The Leafs made it 2-0 as Stapleton scored his first NHL goal as he took advantage of Jason Spezza's misfortune. Spezza was trying to clear the puck out and instead ended up pushing it over the goal line.

``The first period was brutal,'' said Ottawa's Mike Fisher. ``We didn't look like a team at all. The second period was really good and we played like we should have from the start.''

After being outshot 18-8 in the first the Senators came out with greater intensity and scored 29 seconds into the second to cut the lead in half as Ryan Shannon beat Joseph from the slot.

Four minutes later Ruutu tied the game as he jammed the puck in past Joseph short side.

The Leafs nearly regained the lead with just over two minutes remaining as Jason Blake had a breakaway, but Elliott came up with the big save.

Ottawa took its first lead of the game as Alfredsson beat Joseph with a slapshot through the legs early in the third period.

``It was a tough first period on home ice,'' said Alfredsson. ``To be able to turn it around is a good sign.''

Kubina tied the game with just over five minutes remaining with a power-play goal.

``We didn't help ourselves getting behind,'' said Fisher. ``Parts of our game we have to still put together.''

In its last six games, Toronto has won twice in overtime, twice in shootouts and lost twice in shootouts.

``We have nothing to save it for,'' said Mayers. ``We leave it on the line. We're a young team, we're hungry and we never give up.''

Alexandre Picard, playing in his first game after being a healthy scratch the last four, left the game after the first period with a lower-body injury and will be re-evaluated Sunday.