Toskala, Belak (Yes Belak) Shine In Predators Defeat

The feeling inside Air Canada Centre last night was one that fans became very accustomed to during the tenures of both Curtis Joseph and Ed Belfour in Maple Leaf uniforms. Routinely, Joseph and Belfour would steal games for the Maple Leafs, games the team had little business winning. At the end of each season, those games would often add up to the reason why the Maple Leafs were firmly entrenched at the top of the Eastern Conference standings and not fighting for the final playoff position.

Since the end of the lockout, the Maple Leafs have not had that luxury. In 2005-2006, after a year off during the lockout, Belfour was simply not the Belfour of old. Last season, Andrew Raycroft won a team record thirty seven games merely because he played in just about all eighty two. Never did he steal a game. Since the beginning of the season, Vesa Toskala started his Maple Leaf career slowly causing many to wonder if in fact he would be the answer to the goaltending woes.

Finally after four consecutive solid performances, it appears the Maple Leafs finally have the goaltender they were expecting when John Ferguson Jr. acquired Toskala from the San Jose Sharks last summer. Stopping thirty four of thirty five shots against the Nashville Predators, Toskala was the reason the Maple Leafs won after managing only a season low fifteen shots on goal themselves. Toskala committed robbery against Predators shooters on several occasions including turning Jason Arnott aside on twelve different occasions. Shea Weber was the only Predator to beat Toskala, his goal coming late in the third period off a deflection.

Despite limited time spent in the Predators zone, the Maple Leafs made the most of their offensive chances scoring three times on fifteen shots against Nashville netminder Chris Mason. Nik Antropov scored in the first minute of the first period to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead. Mats Sundin earned an assist on the goal stretching his streak of consecutive home games with at least a point from the beginning of the season to sixteen. Matt Stajan scored a spectacular goal batting the puck out of mid air on the backhand to grow the Maple Leafs lead to two goals early in the second period. In the final frame, Wade Belak broke a one hundred and forty three game goalless drought when he jammed a rebound past Mason to put the Maple Leafs up by three.

Belak’s last goal came nearly four years ago on December 20th, 2003. Apart from his goal though, Belak contributed eight robust shifts in which he injected energy with his physical presence and was a reliable player in the defensive zone. Should he continue that same style of play in the future, it will be a long time before Belak spends nine consecutive games in the press box as a healthy scratch as he did during the month of November. His reinsertion into the lineup and the Maple Leafs win streak falling at the same time comes as no coincidence. Belak has given Paul Maurice a viable option on the fourth line to turn to for a spark of energy to ignite the team.

Belak, Toskala and the rest of the Maple Leafs will attempt to push their season high winning streak to four games on Thursday night against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York.