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UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Bryan McCabe was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief last night.
The Toronto Maple Leafs' defenceman, who scored on his own net in overtime in a game against the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 15, no longer has claim to the biggest gaffe of the NHL season.
That dubious distinction now belongs to Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala, who flubbed a bouncing 190-foot shot from New York Islanders defenceman Rob Davison during the Leafs' 3-1 come-from-behind victory last night.
"I guess it puts him up there with my overtime-winner," McCabe said, displaying a sense of humour.
Rob Davison celebrates after beating Vesa Toskala shorthanded from the Islanders goalline. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
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Davison, Toskala's former teammate with the San Jose Sharks, was trying to kill a penalty and drive the puck the length of the ice. His clearing attempt went end over end and took crazy bounces as it headed toward the Toronto net.
Toskala's postgame reaction was a shrug of the shoulders.
"What are you are going to do," he said. "[It] happens. I just laughed. I thought it was pretty funny."
He laughed?
"Yeah, because it was my buddy from San Jose, he doesn't score much," the Toronto netminder said.
At the last moment as Toskala went to block it, the puck veered to his left and hopped over his leg pad. It was only the third goal in 187 career games for Davison.
"Yeah, I always use to practice shooting long on him," Davison said jokingly.
There was speculation the lengthy shot had grazed the stick of Toronto forward Alexei Ponikarovsky to cause the puck to bounce so many times.
"I think it went straight [down the ice]," Davison said. "I was just trying to get it down the ice, but they took away the boards on me, so I had to go down the middle and it bounced on him."
Davison and Toskala shared a chuckle over the fluky goal after the game at the Nassau Coliseum. Davison saw another wacky goal earlier this season with the Sharks when Jeremy Roenick scored his 500th career goal on a dump-in that eluded Phoenix Coyotes goalie Alex Auld.
Toronto was down 1-0 heading into the third period before Kyle Wellwood tipped in an Alex Steen shot for his first goal in six weeks.
Pavel Kubina later scored his third winning goal in four games with a blast from the point on a power play with 8 minutes 51 seconds remaining. Ponikarovsky added an empty-net goal.
The 12th-place Leafs remained six points out of the eighth and final playoff spot, held by the Philadelphia Flyers, in the NHL's Eastern Conference standings with eight games remaining.
The Leafs, who were without top scorers Mats Sundin (groin) and Nik Antropov (knee), lost oft-injured defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo midway through the first period with a hamstring injury after he was pinched along the boards by Isles forward Sean Bergenheim.
Colaiacovo will be re-evaluated today.
"For the love of God, he can't stay healthy," head coach Paul Maurice said.
Colaiacovo, 25, has played in only 101 career games in five seasons with the Leafs.
Alex Foster and Kyle Okposo made their NHL debuts for the Leafs and Islanders, respectively. Foster, 23, is the son of former NHL player Dwight Foster.
"He told me to enjoy it because whether you're Wayne Gretzky or anybody else, you only get one of these," Foster said. "My dad scored goals in his first two games [with the Boston Bruins]. He reminded me of that."
Leafs interim general manager Cliff Fletcher will spend the rest of the week scouting a few games in the WHL, particularly top junior prospect Kyle Beach of the Everett Silvertips as well as Luke Schenn of the Kelowna Rockets.
"There are a lot of good players available in the draft," Fletcher said. "Our scouting staff feels there are seven to eight top players, and we'd be happy with any one of them. We'll deal with the hand we're dealt."
