Toronto Maple Leafs Finally Win A Shootout!

The Toronto Maple Leafs pulled off probably their biggest surprise yet this season-they actually won a shootout victory, and they did it against legendary goalie Martin Brodeur. The Leafs have been a consistent disappointment in the shootout this year, having lost 3 of them before tonight. So when a 5-5 tie was not decided in overtime, Leafs Nation was collectively preparing themselves to settle for a single point in a hard fought battle against the New Jersey Devils. The shootout started just as Leafs fans expected it would-with 2 of their shooters missing the mark, and the Devils taking the lead on a Patrick Elias goal. Then the unthinkable happened. On the Leafs final attempt, Thomas Kaberle beat Marty Brodeur to pull the Leafs even, and Vesa Toskala denied Jamie Langenbrunner at the other end when he had the chance to secure the Devils victory. So with both teams even after 3 shooters, Niklas Hagman came on the ice for the Leafs, and slid the puck into the net with a perfect backhand. Toskala then turned away New Jersey's attempt to tie, and the Toronto Maple Leafs came away with the win.

It was the perfect ending to a thrilling game. With two solid goalies at each end of the ice, one would expect to see a very low scoring game, and some very disciplined defensive play. Tonight the opposite was true and it appeared that both goalies-even the legendary Brodeur-were powerless to stop all the firepower coming their way. This was clearly an off night for Vesa Toskala as well. He has been a barricade in the Maple Leafs net so far, but tonight it looked like he was taking a night off. His play with the puck looked lazier than usual, and he let in several shots that he is capable of stopping most of the time. Also taking a night off for the Leafs was most of their defense. Lately, they have covered their opponents very well, but tonight that coverage was nowhere to be seen, nor was their usual physical dominance in their own end. Surprisingly though, the Maple Leafs offense would carry the team and they kept pace with the Devils all game long.

After the Toronto Maple Leafs went down 2-0 in the first period (yet again!), they scored 3 unanswered goals to take the lead in the 2nd. I don't know what it is with this team and 2 goal defecits, but for some reason that is the Leafs magic number. That seems to be about the time where they look up at the scoreboard, and realize its time to pull their heads out. The lead would switch back and forth throughout the game before ending in a 5-5 tie, setting up the dramatic shootout.

Despite the poor defensive showing, Maple Leafs fans can be excited that their team seems to finally have found some offence. The Antropov-Stajan-Ponikarovsky line was dominant again for the Leafs tonight. Matt Stajan has really picked up his game since being benched by Ron Wilson, and tonight he scored 2 goals as a result of his hard work in front of the net. One thing that all the Maple Leafs lines did well tonight was get traffic in front of Martin Brodeur. He had trouble seeing the puck all game long. Ponikarovsky scored as well, giving the Leafs top line 3 goals on the night-an excellent showing from those guys. The other goals belonged to Thomas Kaberle on a beautiful shot from the point, and Jamal Mayers who banged one in from in front of the net. The line of Mayers-Moore-Hollweg was impressive as well. Aside from the goal by Jamal Mayers, this line provided excellent energy for the Maple Leafs in the form of some hard hitting by Ryan Hollweg, and dominant puck control by Dominic Moore. It was great to see this line finally contribute some offence!

Overall, this was a wild game that was fun to watch! Of course, the Maple Leafs victory made it even more fun. Although they suffered from some bad defensive breakdowns, and a night off from their usually solid goaltender, the Toronto Maple Leafs picked the right time to finally get their offense in gear. They scored 5 goals against the best goalie in the game, and beat him in a shootout! Now Im off to see if hell has frozen over.