Leafs Crush Pens 6-2 at Home

After Toskala shook off the cow webs in the first period, he was letter perfect from then on in. Stopping the next 25 shots he faced on route to a 6-2 victory at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins.The Maple Leafs entered the game as one of the NHL’s worst teams on home ice and were returning from a miserable road trip. On top of that, Pittsburgh scored two goals on its first three shots and had the home fans booing goalie Vesa Toskala.

Jason Blake, and Nik Antropov both continued their respective scoring paces, with Blake scoring 2 and Antropov netting a goal and dding 2 helpers. Stajan, Mitchell, and Ponikarovski also scoredfor the Leafs.



After being down 2-0 going into the second frame, despite out playing and out shooting the Penguins, it looked like we were going to see much of the same from a Leafs squad that we have come to expect to lose.

The winner was Blake’s 21st of the season and will be shown on a few highlight reels. He spun and brought the puck from his backhand to his forehand before sliding it behind Marc-Andre Fleury.

“I thought we did a great job in the second period,” Blake said. “We got pucks deep, we had our skating legs, we forechecked well, we had a lot of shots on net. Overall, I thought it was a great team effort and Vesa played great.

On this night however, the Buds never once let up, Toskala made some key save at key time, Dominic Moore was easily one of the best players on the ice for both teams and all 4 lines were defending well and keeping the Penquins hemmed in in their own zone for much of the contest.

Tampa makes Leafs Pay for Penalties

Well, I haven't been able to say this too often lately, but Jason Blake was held pointless tonight! What is that, the second game in the last 30 or something? Although he did have a hell of a chance on breakaway and just couldn't convert.

Martin St Louis however didn't seem to have any trouble with the puck tonight with a goal and 3 helpers as Tampa beat Toronto 6-4 tonight to hand the Buds their second consecutive loss.




The good news is Joseph only allowed 2 goals on 19 shots, the bad is, Toskala allowed 4 goals on only 12 shots. If the Leafs are hoping to deal him before the deadline they won't have many takers if he continues to perform like that. Like i said befor though, i think that he is just a victim of bad timing with the wrong club.

Hagman scored another highlight reel goal to put the Leafs close but at the end of the day, St Louis, Lecavalier, and rookie goalie McKenna proved to be too much.

The Leafs penalty killing and poor positional play by the whole team was once again their weakness tonight and something that coach Wilson will have to address.

The Maple Leafs next action comes Saturday night at home to the Penguins and as always, you can hear all of the action, right here on Bench Brawl!

Panthers take another Bite out of the Leafs

After being ' called out ' by GM Brian Burke, Nik Antropov responded by scoring his 17th goal of the season in his 500th NHL appearance. At the pace he is on now, it is looking like he will at least match his point totals from last year. Which should make a few teams look long and hard at him come the trade deadline on March the 4th.

Toronto's GM went so far as to say, there was no intention of pursuing a new contract with him.(Antropov)

Tonight's game seemed to be well in hand for the Leafs however as they held a 4-1 lead at just about the mid-way point in the 3rd period. Then the wheels on the bus just fell off.

Florida managed to tie things up with just over 5 minutes left and then Zednik, after scoring the tying goal, scored the game winner just over a minute into overtime to give the Panthers the 5-4 win, and defeat the leafs for the second consecutive time.



Toskala turned in another pretty solid performance making 33 stops, while Florida net-minder Tomas Vokoun made 35.

The Leafs next action is Thursday night as they face the Tampa Bay Lightning and as always, you can hear the game live, right here on Bench Brawl!