Leafs come back against Rangers
Written by on Saturday, March 27th, 2010 in Latest News.
New York’s Michal Rozsival, left, protects the puck from Toronto’s Fredrik Sjostrom on Saturday. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)
The Toronto Maple Leafs continue to play the role of spoiler.
They knocked the wind out of the New York Rangers’ fleeting playoff hopes with a 3-2 win in overtime at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday.
Maple Leafs forward Nikolai Kulemin provided the game winner with a wraparound 39 seconds into the extra period. It was the Leafs’ seventh consecutive win in either overtime or a shootout late in the season.
The loss snapped the Rangers’ win streak at two. They are now are four points back of the eighth-place Philadelphia Flyers with seven games remaining.
Toronto trailed the entire game until defenceman Tomas Kaberle tied the game at 2-2 with 3:35 remaining in the third period. He fired a shot along the goal-line that squeezed past Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist because he failed to hug his left post.
Maple Leafs defenceman Dion Phaneuf and Rangers pest Sean Avery went at each other from the opening faceoff. The two don’t like each other.
Phaneuf’s girlfriend is Avery’s ex, Canadian actor Elisha Cuthbert, and Avery made a crude comment 16 months ago about the fact Phaneuf was dating her.
Avery departed midway through the second period after he injured his left knee in a battle for the puck in the end boards with Maple Leafs defenceman Luke Schenn.
The Rangers started quickly with a pair of first-period goals.
Toronto rookie goalie Jonas Gustavsson, who entered the game with six wins in a row, didn’t look excellent on either P.A. Parenteau’s spin-around shot from the slot or Brandon Dubinsky’s wraparound goal in the dying seconds of the opening 20 minutes.
Toronto centre Tyler Bozak had a backhand off the post in the first period, but the Leafs finally scored 93 seconds into the second period when forward John Mitchell trailed on the play to slam in a pass from linemate Mikhail Grabovski.
Ottawa’s Matt Carkner checks Florida’s Rostislav Olesz during Saturday’s game. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)