Toskala; Top Line Carry Leafs Over Thrashers

At the Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia on November 29th, the Maple Leafs turned their season’s fortunes around with a convincing 4-2 victory over the Thrashers, lying to rest the notion that anybody from Richard Peddie, John Ferguson Jr. or Paul Maurice right on down through the organization to the assistant zamboni driver could be shown the door. That win sent the Maple Leafs on a stretch of five wins in six games, restoring the faith of many of the card carrying members of Leaf Nation. Last night in their first return visit to Atlanta since that turning point night, the Maple Leafs defeated the Thrashers again, this time by a score of 4-0, continuing their shockingly strong play of late.

After firing head coach Bob Hartley when they went on a six game losing streak to begin the season, Atlanta found new life and climbed back into contention by the time early November rolled around. Lately though, the Thrashers have returned to their lethargic ways allowing themselves to be easily outworked and committing horrendous turnovers that simply cannot be committed by a team that expects to win more games than they lose.

Case in point, with an opportunity to open the scoring against the Maple Leafs while on the man advantage last night, netminder Kari Lehtonen – quickly transforming himself from “can’t miss prospect” to “high draft pick bust” – mishandled the puck behind his own net allowing Boyd Deveraux to notch a shorthanded goal into a gaping cage. So much for any momentum the Thrashers may have gained from that power play. Instead, the goal energized the Maple Leafs and sent the Thrashers into an even more tentative state.

Just over three minutes later, Mats Sundin scored another soft goal growing the Maple Leafs lead to two. Vesa Toskala was solid all game long making twenty four stops including one on an Ilya Kovalchuk breakaway that could have reignited the Thrashers near the end of the second period. In his last seven games, Toskala’s tremendous play allowing only ten goals during this stretch is a major reason for the corresponding play of the Maple Leafs.

Alexei Ponikarovsky scored twice in the final five minutes of the third period to ice the game in favour of the Maple Leafs. Nik Antropov picked up three assists setting up both of Ponikarovsky’s goals as well as Sundin’s early in the game.

The Maple Leafs headed north after this game and will take on the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.