Good to Be Lucky and Lucky to Be Good
Simon B
A late-game on a Tuesday. Not exactly the ideal time for hockey. The wonders of cable made it so I could watch it this morning with breakfast which is something I rather enjoyed.
In warmups, the Leafs all wore jerseys with number 10 on them to honor the late Geroge Armstrong. They also had crests on their jerseys during the actual games. Coach Keefe made a few moves before this one. Dermott out, Lethonenen in. Spezza and Barabanov out, Joey Anderson and Travis Boyd in.
A tale of 2 Teams
The first period was dominated by the Leafs. Pressure all over the ice and Calgary had no room to do anything. Early in the game, Justin Holl and Alex Kerfoot jumped into the rush. A hard shot on net by Holl with a long rebound off of Markstrom's pad and Simmonds had a wide-open net to give Toronto an early lead. Andersen (the goalie) had nothing to do for the first 5 minutes of the game. Toronto's defense was really active and they were snuffing out the flames with no problem. Pierre Engvall put Toronto a man down though with a trip. On the ensuing penalty kill, Mikheyev was awesome at not giving the Flames any room to enter the zone. Once Calgary started chasing a bit, they took a penalty to make in 4 on 4. Once the penalty to Engvall was over, Toronto was buzzing on the power play. A beauty of a pass by Marner set up Matthews in the slot and he'll never miss from there. Just like that, it's 2-0 Leafs. Toronto kept the pressure going all period long. So much so that to Calgary 19 minutes to get their first shot.
The second period was the polar opposite of the first. Early on, the Flames out-manned the Leafs in front of the net. Johnny Gaudreau flipped it past a helpless Andersen and Calgary cut the lead in half. Mikko Lehtonen, who was given much more ice-time than he had been getting and he looked really confident on the puck. Lehtonen was jumping into the rush constantly. Soon after, a great stretch pass by Jake Muzzin sprung Engvall on a break. He flipped a pass to a streaking Travis Boyd who rifled it home for his first goal with Toronto (in his first game with the team) and the Leafs restored their 2-goal-lead. From then on it was Calgarian domination. Andersen kept the score the way it was with some big saves but the Leafs had no response for the Flames' push. On one of many Calgary rushes, Milan Lucic was left all alone in front of the net. It was evident that the Flames were going to score here and they did.
Calgary took over the entire ice from then on. The Leafs couldn't generate any offense since the Boyd goal early in the second. Tavares took a holding penalty and I just thought if Calgary doesn't score it's a miracle. Well, miracles don't happen often. Johnny Gaudreau snipes one short-side on Andersen to tie the game at 3. After that goal, the Leafs sort of stepped things up a bit but not by much. On an offensive rush, Matthews had it down below the goal line and gave it to Marner in the high slot. Marner one-timed it passed Markstrom and gave the Leafs their lead back Late in the period, Joey Anderson took a delay of game penalty and the Leafs would be short-handed for pretty much the rest of regulation. The Flames pulled their goalie with 1:30 to go to make it a 6 on 4 scenario. They did kill it off though and came away with the win.
The Wrap
After the final buzzer, Jake Muzzin (intentionally) flipped the puck at Matthew Tkachuk. This was probably in retaliation for being such a goon to Jack Campbell last game. Tkachuk was furious and started a whole scrum. Then he left the ice in a bunch of anger. Muzzin, like many Leafs fans, probably doesn't appreciate the fact that he partici[ated in getting their backup goalie injured and unavailable for a while. Toronto got the 2 points and in this tight division, that's all that matters. On to Edmonton for 2 against the Oilers Thursday and Saturday.
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