The Toronto Maple Leafs finally provided patrons who attended a weekend game at Air Canada Center with an entertaining contest, as the club withstood a third period barrage from the Chicago Blackhawks and held on for a 3-2 victory on Saturday night.
The win was Toronto’s third in a row and capped a week that saw the Leafs move over .500 for the first time this season.
The game was an evenly played seesaw battle through 40 minutes, as Nazem Kadri and James van Riemsdyk scored for Toronto, Brad Richards and Brent Seabrook scored power play goals for Chicago. Peter Holland broke the 2-2 tie early in the third and from that point, the Blackhawks took control of the game and laid siege to the Leafs and goalie James Reimer.
Reimer had not started since October 17 and appeared rusty on point shots from Richards and Seabrook early in the game, but stepped up in the third, making a number of remarkable stops as the Hawks outshot 26-7 in the final 20 minutes.
“He was first star, simple as that…..the way he played and the number of saves that he made in the third period.… Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said following the game. “This is a tough game to play when you got the Chicago Blackhawks waiting for you rested and you’re coming off a back-to-back, (but) we stuck with the game plan, we weren’t pretty and our goaltender gave us a chance in the end. That’s all you can really ask of your team.…
According to Elias, #Leafs are first team to face at least 25 shots in third without allowing a goal since Oct. 22, 2008. Reimer stopped 26.
— Rob Longley (@longleysunsport) November 2, 2014Toronto is now 6-4-1 and faces a busy schedule this week, taking to the road for a pair of games against Arizona on Tuesday and Colorado on Thursday before returning home to face the New York Rangers at ACC on Saturday and in Ottawa on Sunday. The game against the Senators is rescheduled postponement from October 15th after the shooting of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the War Memorial in downtown Ottawa.
******* The Leafs play this week reflected a new sense of urgency in the aftermath of a poor home effort against the Boston Bruins last Saturday, which marked the fourth regulation loss at Air Canada Center in five games.
“Enough was enough, because we couldn’t continue to go the way that we were going.“ Carlyle said. “Our performance against Boston in our minds and (the player’s) minds was unacceptable, so they took it upon themselves the responsibility in preparing themselves.… While Toronto is still clearly too dependent on Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk to do the bulk of the scoring, other players did raise their game and contributed in the three victories over Buffalo, Columbus and Chicago.
Jake Gardiner scored his first goal of the year on Tuesday, Nazem Kadri more than doubled his season point total with three points on Friday and Saturday, Daniel Winnik stepped up in the absence of the injured Joffrey Lupul with a goal and three assists in back-to-back games and David Clarkson scored the game winning power play goal against the Blue Jackets.
Just as significant have been the contributions of Leo Komarov, Peter Holland and Roman Polak. Komarov continues to play the pest role to perfection as he did in his first incarnation with Toronto, but his value as a penalty killer and playmaker have become more evident with his increased role and more ice time.
The former Finnish Olympian trails only Kessel with seven assists, one of which set up Holland’s game winning goal on Saturday. The 23-year-old has shown flashes since being acquired from Anaheim last November, especially when placed in offensive situations. Holland had trouble making any impact in limited fourth line minutes, but since Lupul’s injury he has scored a goal and assist with increased ice time (nearly 10 minutes on Friday, 16:35 on Saturday).
Polak has been a steadying presence on the blueline and has worked well paired with sophomore Morgan Rielly. The 28-year-old Czech leads the Leafs with 46 hits, is effective on the penalty kill and trails only Dion Phaneuf in ice time on the club. He played a team-high 23:10 TOI in Columbus on Friday.
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