tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Leafs Impressive In 4-2 Win

Surviving a 1st period when they were out shot 16-10, outscored 1-0 and saw the New York Rangers score 2 goals that were disallowed, the Toronto Maple Leafs roared back in the final 2 periods to earn a 4-2 win to spoil the Rangers home opener at the newly refurbished Madison Square Garden. The first period the Rangers strategy was to fire as many shots to the net as possible. Jonas Gustavsson made 15 saves in that 1st period but looked bad on Dan Girardi's goal that should have been stopped. Two times in the period Ryan Callahan interfered with Gustavsson causing the puck to go into the net and both times the goals were disallowed. Give Callahan credit. After the game when he was asked about the two disallowed goals, Callahan owned up saying that he hit the goaltender and he made no excuses. No penalty was called on either play because a Leaf player was in contact with Callahan.

The Leafs came out a much more determined squad in the second period. Matthew Lombardi scored the Leafs' first goal beating Henrik Lundqvist on the short side. I'm sure Lundqvist wishes he could have that one back. Phil Kessel had another strong game as his line was dangerous all night. Kessel had two break aways in the second period but Lundqvist stoned him both times. The other highlight in the second period was a mismatch fight between Mike Brown and former Leaf Kris Newberry. Brown ended the fight really quick as he put Newberry down to the Madison Square Garden ice.

The Leafs took the game over in the third period with 3 unanswered goals and played a textbook road third period. What was impressive was that even with the lead the Leafs continued to aggressively forecheck and limited the number of shots for the Rangers. Mike Kommisarek had one of his better games as he was strong defensively and made a nice play that resulted in Mike Brown's goal which made the score 4-1. As mentioned above, the Kessel-Connolly-Lupul line was a threat all night. It may have been Lupul's best game as a Leaf as he was a physical threat and scored early in the third when he went hard to the net and pounced on a rebound that gave the Leafs a lead they would never relinquish.

Defensively, the Leafs played really well after the first period. The pair of Dion Phaneuf and Carl Gunnarsson led the way with solid play. Luke Schenn had one of his better games of the young season. Hopefully, Clarke MacArthur's goal in the third period will get him and his linemates going as his goal proved to be the game winner. Nikolai Kulemin had a really strong third period and was a physical force.

Jonas Gustavsson had no chance on the Rangers second goal and made saves when he had to the biggest one with 47 seconds left in the game off the stick of Brad Richards. I thought Gustavsson was a little shaky and actually thought he played a better game in the Philly loss but he did what a back up needs to do and he gave the Leafs a chance to win particularly in the first period.

The long awaited debut of Tim Connolly was a good one. Connolly made some nice plays and hopefully he can stay healthy. It was easy to see that this guy has the ability to be the playmaking center that the Leafs have longed for to pair up with Phil Kessel.

The Leafs came out of this four game road trip with 2 wins, both against teams that they will need to beat in order to get into the playoffs and were only outplayed in the loss at Boston. They were able to do this without James Reimer in three of the games. And now with a complete line up, the Leafs have an opportunity to put last year's collapse behind them. Hopefully, Reimer is back in the line up on Saturday when the Leafs take on Pittsburgh. The puck drop is 7pm at the ACC.

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