Rask Sticks It To Leafs

In an ironic twist of fate, Tuukka Rask made his first NHL start against the Toronto Maple Leafs – the team that drafted him twenty first overall in 2005 – and left John Ferguson Jr. questioning whether trading him for Andrew Raycroft at the 2006 NHL entry draft was indeed the correct decision. Just over a year later, Rask certainly did look NHL ready turning aside thirty Maple Leaf shots while leading his Bruins to a 4-2 come from behind victory.

For the first thirty nine minutes, the Maple Leafs looked like the better team, capitalizing on their chances to build a 2-0 lead and holding the Bruins to fourteen shots on Vesa Toskala. Bryan McCabe scored late in the first period on the power play to open the scoring. Mats Sundin scored his eleventh goal of the season at the 15:36 mark of the second period, putting him past Frank Mahovlich for twenty sixth on the all time NHL goals list.

Despite a fairly robust thirty three minutes – a team high for ice time in this game - McCabe would not escape without a costly turnover leading to Boston’s first goal in the final minute of the second period. Until this mistake, the Maple Leafs appeared to have done a good job of carrying over their stingy defensive play on home ice that they put on display Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators.

However the third period equaled the same old story for the Maple Leafs on home ice: another meltdown. PJ Axelsson scored midway through the period to tie the game for Boston. With less than four minutes remaining, Chuck Kobasew put the go ahead goal past Vesa Toskala after Ian White lost positioning on Kobasew allowing him to skate the puck toward the front of the net and beat the Maple Leaf netminder with a shot to the blocker side. The Bruins iced the game late on Kobasew’s second goal of the game, an empty net marker at 19:33.

Tuukka Rask was strong for Boston in this game making numerous solid stops including a kick save late in the third period off a Jiri Tlusty shot to preserve Boston’s one goal lead. The Maple Leafs will look to get back on track when they hit the road to take on the Stars in Dallas on Friday night.