Sunday, October 7, 2007

Leafs Get 1st Win Against Habs


The Toronto Maple Leafs have high expectations for this season. They are expected to make the playoffs for the 1st time in 2 years, and contend for the Cup. But before yesterday, the Leafs didn't even have a win. They were looking to change that against the Canadiens.

The game started out fast, as Mathieu Dandenault scored on the Leafs just 2:43 into the 1st. But Toronto answered back quickly when Ian White scored his 1st of the season . The goals were just 2minutes a part! In the 2nd, the Habs once again opened the scoring when Andrei Markov scored a short-handed goal to give the Canadiens the lead. Montreal then padded the lead near the end of the 2nd with a goal from Andrei Kastsitsyn. But the Leafs wouldn't go into the break down 2 goals, as a bad play from Huet led to Alexei Ponikarovsky's 1st goal of the season. In the 3rd, Ponikarovsky struck again, firing the puck past Huet from the slot to tie the game up. The game would be scoreless from there until overtime.

In the O.T period, each time had it's share of chances, but it was the Leafs who capitalized on those chances. They had a powerplay late in the period, gave the puck to Kaberle, who scored his 1st goal of the season to win the game 4-3.

"Finally," Leafs forward Alexei Ponikarovsky said Saturday after the 4-3 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens. "We worked hard for it. The first two games we've been working hard but we didn't get the results we wanted."

Both teams look great, but in the end, it came down to goaltending. Vesa Toskala was the best player in the game and stopped shot after shot.

The Leafs will look for their 2nd win of the season against the Hurricanes on Tuesday.

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