Toskala Stellar in Leafs Victory over Habs

Vesa Toskala looked like regained some of his old confidence as he led the Toronto Maple Leafs to victory over a beleaguered Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens last night.

Toskala has been the subject of much controversy in Toronto, the self-proclaimed “hub of the hockey world”. Not only were the fickle Toronto fans loudly questioning Toskala’s netminding skills, Coach Ron Wilson and GM Brian Burke also called out their goalie earlier in the week. But last night Toskala was the best Leaf on the ice. He stymied the Habs on a couple of “five on three power plays” proving once again that a hot goalie is the best penalty killer a team can have.

Three other Leafs played prominent roles behind Toskala’s brilliant performance. Jason Blake notched a couple of key goals and Dominic Moore won some key face-offs as well as providing some great checking and passing to get the puck to Blake on several occasions.

But a major surprise for me was the play of Matt Stajan who played a feisty game adding some much needed sandpaper to an otherwise soft Leaf line-up.

On the other side of the ledger, Montreal’s Carey Price looked bewildered at times in the Montreal nets. In the third period I thought he was getting back into a groove with a couple of key saves and then just when I thought he was back to normal he allowed a couple of soft “glove side” goals to sink any thoughts of a Habs comeback.

The Montreal Canadiens now head out on a tough six-game road trip. Perhaps a few games away from the boo-birds in Montreal will allow Price he opportunity to re-gain his confidence as the team heads down the home stretch and on into the play-offs.

Luke Schenn, Toronto highly-hyped rookie defenseman, opened the scoring with his first NHL goal.




Ice Chips: Bobby Ryan (the NHL Rookie of the Month in January) scored a nice goal in the Ducks victory over the Flames. Another ex-Owen Sound Attack player Dan Lacosta recorded his first NHL victory as he led the Columbus Blue Jackets past the high-flying Sharks 3-2 in overtime. Meanwhile in Ottawa, former Owen Sound junior star Adam Mair settled an old score with Jarkko Ruutu and then scored a nice goal for the Sabres.