Belfour Solid In Fourth Victory In A Row

It felt like a playoff game right from the puck drop and the Leafs played a playoffs type game. Good defense, excellent goaltending and timely goals led the Leafs to victory again tonight as they pulled off a 2-1 victory over their bitter Northeast division rivals, the Ottawa Senators.

Matt Stajan had another outstanding game scoring the first goal of the game and played tight defense again seeing increased ice time. Having not scored a goal in thirteen games, Stajan continued to work hard to get chances and finally saw it pay off tonight. Senator’s netminder, Patrick Lalime was unable to handle a routine wrist shot from Harold Druken causing a rebound to drop right at Stajan’s feet who had good position infront of the net and was easily able to tap it in.

Ed Belfour was also up to his usual tricks making some tremendous saves with the game on the line. His best play occurred during a four minute penalty killing situation late in the third period keeping the score in the Leafs favour. It is not known whether he will start again tomorrow in New York or if Trevor Kidd will be given his first start of the year. Coach Pat Quinn said he would talk to Belfour to see if he feels comfortable playing in back to back games.

With tonight’s win, the Leafs tied the Boston Bruins for the lead of the Northeast division; however, the Bruins have two games in hand. Playing with a great deal of confidence as the Maple Leafs have been will only help them put some distance between themselves and the rest of the teams in their division.