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TORONTO — Now that the pressure to keep winning no longer hovers over the heads of the Toronto Maple Leafs, they, of course, managed to win.
Led by rookies Antron Stralman and Jiri Tlusty, who both scored two goals, the Leafs downed the rival Montreal Canadiens 4-2 before an announced a capacity crowd of 19,584 fans at the Air Canada Centre. But there were hundreds of no-shows because the Leafs were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention on Thursday.
“It's a tough time for everyone in the dressing room,” Tlusty said. “We have to play for each other and we did tonight. We just have to play our best. It's a tough time right now. It's my first season, but some of the guys haven't made the playoffs in three seasons.”
The impressive performances from Tlusty and Stralman added intrigue to the decisions interim general manager Cliff Fletcher will consider in the next two months.
The Maple Leafs' Jiri Tlusty (11) is congratulated by teammates after his second goal of the game against the Canadiens on Saturday night. Toronto won 4-2. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)
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But Fletcher denied a rumour that was making the rounds in the press box last night that he approached the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment board of directors with a proposal to buyout the contracts of veterans Darcy Tucker and Bryan McCabe.
“I haven't talked to the board about that,” Fletcher said. “Let's not put the cart before the horse here. Trades may change the dynamic of the team. Buyouts are at the bottom of the list, something we don't have to consider until the end of June.”
Toronto's victory snapped a four-game winning streak for the Canadiens, who are vying for their first Eastern Conference regular season title since the 1988-89 NHL season. Montreal remained one point ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins atop the Eastern standings with three games remaining. The Penguins have four contests to play.
The Canadiens were without captain Saku Koivu and defenceman Mark Streit. The two assisted on Chris Higgins game-winning goal in overtime against the Buffalo Sabres on Friday evening, but woke up with painful foot injuries.
There was no prognosis as to how much time either player will miss with their ailments or as to the seriousness of the injuries because they will be evaluated on Monday when the swelling is expected to subside.
“I don't know,” said Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau, when asked for an injury update. “Usually when it's swollen that much, the X-rays don't mean much. We'll have [to wait for swelling to go down].”
Veterans Mathieu Dandenault and Patrice Brisebois subbed in for Koivu and Streit. Brisebois had been a healthy scratch for the past four contests, while Dandenault sat out 15 of the previous 16 games.
After a goal-less opening 20 minutes, Stralman took matters into his own hands by sandwiching a pair of goals around one from Dandenault in the second period.
Stralman drifted a shot from the blue line that Canadiens netminder Jaroslav Halak was screened on for a 1-0 lead and then the young defenceman put his club up again with wrist shot at the end of an impressive rush up the ice.
In between Stalman's second and third goals of the season, Montreal's Maxim Lapierre spun around at the side of the Leafs goal and his shot redirected off Dandenault's skate.
Before this scoring splurge happened – all three goals were scored two minutes and eight seconds apart midway through the second period – Higgins had a penalty shot. But his backhand deke was stopped by the left pad of Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala, who was making his 30th consecutive start.
Tlusty twice deflected shots from linemate Nik Antropov for the two goals in the third period. Tlusty also checked in with an assist on Stralman's first goal for a three-point game as did Antropov to increase his productivity to three assists for the evening.
Montreal's Tom Kostopoulos added a backhand goal in the final minute.
Notes – Toronto backup goalie Andrew Raycroft is expected to start when his team plays host to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. He will be seeking his first victory since Nov. 9. Raycroft hasn't seen any action since relieving Toskala on Feb. 5 and hasn't started since Jan. 20, a 3-2 road loss to the New Jersey Devils … The Leafs signed free-agent 6-foot-3, 215-pound right wing Kyle Rogers of the Niagara University Purple Eagles to a two-year contract. Rogers, a 23-year-old junior, scored the Eagles overtime winner in the league championship game. Niagara, however, was eliminated by Michigan in the regionals on Friday and will join the Toronto Marlies of the AHL for the rest of the season.
