Game 652
Maple Leafs 6, Canadiens 4
Saturday, December 15, 2001
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Not much is going wrong for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Gary Roberts had two goals and an assist to lead Toronto to a 6-4 victory over the Montréal Canadiens on Saturday night and extend the Maple Leafs’ winning streak to five games.
“Things have gone really well for us the last couple of weeks,” Toronto’s Shayne Corson said. “We’re starting to get used to playing with each other. Hopefully, we can keep going.”
Corson added a goal and two assists for Toronto, which outshot Montréal 48-16.
Darcy Tucker, Robert Reichel and Dmitri Yushkevich also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have won seven of eight and lead the Eastern Conference with 45 point.
“Everyone contributed,” Roberts said. “When Mats Sundin’s line doesn’t score, normally this is team is in trouble, but other lines helped the team win.”
Benoît Gratton, Stéphane Quintal, Richard Zednik, and Mike Ribeiro scored for the Canadiens, who had their four-game unbeaten streak snapped.
“It was our worse gamt in the last few weeks,” Montréal’s Yanic Perreault said. “When you score four goals, you should win the game, but it’s tough when you allow that many.”
Roberts, who did not score in November, has five goals in the Leafs’ five-game winning streak, including a hat trick against the New York Rangers on December 6.
Roberts’ goal in the second period gave Toronto a 3-1 lead. His eighth goal of the season, with 0.3 seconds left in the second, pushed the Leafs’ lead to 4-2.
“I just knew I didn’t have a lot of time yet,” Roberts said.
Gratton had just left the penalty box when teammate Patrice Brisebois intercepted Alexander Mogilny’s centering pass, made a long pass up the middle to Gratton, who scored his first goal of the season on the breakaway for a 1-0 Montréal lead.
Yushkevich’s wrist shot from the point tied it at 8:24 of the first, and Corson made it 2-1 with a wrist shot at 16:53 of the period.
Roberts passed to Tomas Kaberle, who faked a shot and fed back to Roberts, who beat goalie José Théodore with a backhander at 13:10 of the second.
Quintal scored just over two minutes later.
Roberts scored from behind the net on a power play when his centering pass bounced off Montréal defenceman Sheldon Souray and into the net.
Tucker made it 5-2 with his 10th goal of the season at 4:23 of the third.
NOTES: Tie Domi passed Dave “Tiger” Williams for first place on the Maple Leafs’ career penalty minute list (1,672). Domi was upset they didn’t post the record on the video board. “It just goes to show you that certain people don’t like that part of the game,” Domi said. “My teammates and coaches appreciate it.” … Toronto outshot Montréal 14-4 in the first period…The Maple Leafs have scored a power-play goal in five straight games…Goalie Jeff Hackett replaced Théodore at 17:08 of the third…The Maple Leafs’ 48 shots were a season high…Former Leaf Doug Gilmour received a long standing ovation when the Leafs honoured him on the video board.
Story property of ESPN
BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL PEN – 05:39 – Gratton, tripping
MTL GOAL – 07:45 – Gratton (Brisebois)
TOR GOAL – 08:24 – Yushkevich (Corson)
MTL PEN – 10:50 – Van Allen, slashing
TOR PEN – 13:12 – Cross, holding
TOR GOAL – 16:53 – Corson (Tucker, Berg)
2nd Period
TOR GOAL – 13:10 – Roberts (Kaberle, Yushkevich)
MTL GOAL – 15:53 – Quintal (Ribeiro, Markov)
MTL PEN – 18:59 – Gratton, high sticking
TOR PP GOAL – 19:59 – Roberts (Mogilny)
3rd Period
TOR GOAL – 04:23 – Tucker (Corson, Mogilny)
MTL PEN – 05:31 – Simpson, fighting major
TOR PEN – 05:31 – Domi, fighting major
MTL GOAL – 06:00 – Zednik (Van Allen, Markov)
TOR PEN – 07:56 – Hoglund, cross checking
MTL PEN – 11:51 – Savage, high sticking
TOR GOAL – 17:51 – Reichel (Green, Roberts)
MTL GOAL – 18:49 – Ribeiro (Quintal, Perreault)
GOALTENDERS
TOR – Joseph (W, 12-16)
MTL – Théodore (27-31), Hackett (L, 15-17)
SHOTS ON GOAL
TOR – 14+17+17 = 48
MTL – 4+9+3 = 16
ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Curtis Joseph, Corey Schwab. Defence: Aki Berg, Cory Cross, Anders Eriksson, Tomas Kaberle, Bryan McCabe, Dmitri Yushkevich. Forwards: Shayne Corson, Tie Domi, Travis Green, Jonas Hoglund, Alyn McCauley, Alexander Mogilny, Robert Reichel, Mikael Renberg, Gary Roberts, Mats Sundin (C), Darcy Tucker, Garry Valk.
MTL – Goaltenders: Jeff Hackett, José Théodore. Defence: Patrice Brisebois, Karl Dykhuis, Andrei Markov, Stéphane Quintal, Craig Rivet, Sheldon Souray. Forwards: Arron Asham, Andreas Dackell, Doug Gilmour, Benoît Gratton, Chad Kilger, Yanic Perreault, Oleg Petrov, Mike Ribeiro, Brian Savage, Reid Simpson, Shaun Van Allen, Richard Zednik.
TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 20-8-2-3 (.682)
MTL – 14-12-5-1 (.531)
ATTENDANCE
19,364
THREE STARS
⭐ Gary Roberts (TOR)
⭐⭐ Dmitri Yushkevich (TOR)
⭐⭐⭐ Shayne Corson (TOR)
Two Solitudes 