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SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Toronto Maple Leafs can say they finally put in a respectable effort on their California road trip.
But all it added up to was another loss.
Goaltender Vesa Toskala, making his first appearance in San Jose since the Sharks traded him to the Leafs last summer, tried mightily but the Leafs could not stay out of the penalty box in the third period.
They could not hold a two-goal lead and surrendered three goals in the third period to lose 3-2. It was their fifth consecutive loss and will do little to stem the rising uproar about the team's performance this season.
The NHL playoffs are a faint hope, as the Leafs will have to win 25 of their last 37 games to have a realistic hope of making them. They have a mere two wins in their last 13 games.
There may also be a new controversy, as television cameras caught Leaf captain Mats Sundin making contact with linesman Lonnie Cameron after the game.
However, referee Rob Shick, the most senior member of the officiating crew, said the incident did not warrant a report to the NHL's head office.
"It was just heat-of-the-moment stuff," Shick said. "We're okay with it. From our point of view, we have to know the difference between emotion and abuse. This was emotion."
Sundin denied shoving the linesman, saying if there was contact, "it was accidental."
The Leafs were certainly emotional about a penalty call on defenceman Hal Gill that created the five-on-three power play on which the Sharks scored the tying goal.
Gill was in front of the Leaf net and made contact with a Sharks forward but felt it was not hard enough to warrant a penalty for cross-checking.
During the two-man advantage, Sharks defenceman Craig Rivet scored and less than two minute later, seconds after Gill got back on the ice, Joe Pavelski scored the winning goal.
"I didn't push him that hard," Gill said. "Usually, five-on-four, you can battle in front of the net. They haven't called that all year."
The Leafs played their strongest period in at least a week to open the game. For a change, they managed to score early to get the lead and even though the Sharks came at them strong, they hung on to that lead.
A lame clearing attempt by Sharks goaltender Evgeny Nabokov behind his net led to that goal. The puck slid around the boards to Mats Sundin, who spotted Nik Antropov alone in the slot. The Leaf captain quickly relayed it to Antropov who snapped home his second goal in as many games after a 12-game drought at 3:19 of the first period.
At the other end of the ice, Toskala showed no ill effects from his recent groin injury. He experienced a little tightness in the muscles after being forced into relief of Andrew Raycroft in Thursday's 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. This prompted the Leafs to call up prospect Justin Pogge, but Toskala declared himself fit to play after the morning skate and Pogge's NHL debut was placed on hold.
Nabokov was almost as sharp as Toskala through the first two periods and they put on an entertaining battle, although the Shark goaltender gave up a soft goal to increase the Leafs' lead.
First, Nabokov was shaken up in the first minute of the second period when he took a glancing blow on the head from Antropov's knee as the big Leaf charged the San Jose net.
Shortly after that, Sharks centre Marcel Goc took a hooking penalty and the Leaf power play produced a goal. It was not a classic, just a long slapshot by defenceman Pavel Kubina that squirted between Nabokov's pads at 1:42 but it was a welcome sight.
The Leafs held the 2-0 lead through the rest of the period as the Sharks turned up the heat. Toskala turned back his old teammates every time, especially centre Patrick Marleau.
He stopped Marleau to end a Sharks flurry on a power play in the last minute of the second period and robbed him again in the first minute of the third as the power play continued.
But Marleau was not to be denied and he scored at 1:09, just before the power play expired. Marleau's slapshot from the high slot hit Leaf defenceman Hal Gill's stick and changed direction on Toskala. It was his eighth goal of the season.
That energized the sellout crowd of 17,496 and the Sharks responded with two goals in a little more than a minute to take the lead.
"[Toskala] was playing unbelieveable," Sharks head coach Ron Wilson said. "Going into the third period with a power play was huge for us as long as we got the job done and we did.
"Once we broke the ice, we felt better, they felt worse and you could see the difference from that point on. We were all over them, they took some more penalties and the next thing you know, it's lights out."
