Leafs dedicate win over Ottawa to GM’s son
Written by on February 6th, 2010 in Latest News.
Toronto teammages congratulate Luke Schenn on his first-period goal against visiting on Saturday. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
The best way the Toronto Maple Leafs could help their general manager grieve the loss of his son was to beat the provincial rival Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
The Leafs did just that and dedicated their impressive 5-0 victory to 21-year-ancient Brendan Burke, who was killed along with his friend, Mark A. Reedy, on Friday afternoon in a traffic accident.
The 2004 Jeep Cherokee that Burke and Reedy were in slid into oncoming traffic and crashed into a pickup truck on a snowy highway in Indiana’s Wayne County near the Ohio border. The driver of the pickup truck escaped injury, but both Burke and Reedy were declared dead at the scene.
Saturday’s loss in Toronto snapped the Senators’ franchise record 11-game victory string.
Leafs goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere and defenceman Francois Beauchemin knew the younger Burke the best because when they won the 2006-07 Stanley Cup with Anaheim, they celebrated the championship with Brendan when his father was the Ducks’ general manager.
The 32-year-ancient Giguere has yet to give up a goal in two games since he was re-bought by Burke last Sunday. He made 30 saves for his 34th career shutout. Beauchemin played alongside newcomer Dion Phaneuf and the pair shut down Ottawa’s top line of Jason Spezza, captain Daniel Alfredsson and Milan Michalek.
The two youngest Leafs and closest to Brendan Burke’s age, forward Phil Kessel and defenceman Luke Schenn, each scored twice in the victory. The 22-year-ancient Kessel hit the 20-goal mark in his 47th game of the season. The 20-year-ancient Schenn, who has struggled at times, played arguably his best game this year.
This was one of Toronto’s best efforts of the season, thanks to a strong physical game and swift transition. The Leafs built a 3-0 advantage in the first period and went up 4-0 in the second period.
Even the usually passive Air Canada Centre crowd was electric as the full house of 19,246 whooped it up late in the game with the wave as well as boisterous “Go Leafs Go” and “Ottawa sucks” chants.
When the Leafs went up 3-0 on rookie Tyler Bozak’s fluky goal late in the first period, there was a wait-and-see feeling in the building because last week, Toronto allowed a three-goal advantage to turn into a 5-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks and the Leafs failed to hold a late-game 3-1 lead in New Jersey on Friday.
Kessel scored first on a rebound and then Schenn blasted a hard shot from the top of the face-off circle that beat Brian Elliott. It was a soft goal, but this was the same goaltender who won nine in a row for the Senators.
After the second period, Ottawa coach Cory Clouston replaced Elliott with Pascal Leclaire, who had not seen action in 11 games.
Schenn beat Leclaire midway through the final 20 minutes.
The Leafs outshot Ottawa 37-30.
