Game 655
Maple Leafs 1, Canadiens 1
Saturday, March 9, 2002
Centre Molson, Montréal, Québec
Everything went right for Joé Juneau.
The Montréal veteran, whose main job was to check gifted Toronto centre Mats Sundin, scored the tying goal as the Canadiens and Maple Leafs drew 1-1 on Saturday night.
“The Sundin line is one of the best in the league,” said Juneau, who has seven points in his last four games. “And they’re big guys who are all three or four inches taller than me.
“But I think we played well from the middle of the second period on. We were more confident and determined and we ended up getting a goal on the power play.”
Travis Green scored in the first period for Toronto, which dropped to three points behind Northeast Division-leading Boston. The Bruins beat Calgary 3-2 earlier Saturday.
Montréal moved into a three-way tie with New Jersey and the New York Rangers for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Only eight teams per conference make the playoffs.
Juneau centres Montréal’s top checking line his role was to try to contain the rangy Sundin, who had Gary Roberts on his left side in place of Mikael Renberg, who sat out with a nagging thigh injury.
The captain of Sweden’s Olympic team had nine shots on Montréal goalie José Théodore, and whistled two or three more just wide of the posts, but was held off the scoresheet. Roberts and right-wing Jonas Hoglund added another shot each.
“We had a lot of chances and Mats played a great game,” said Toronto coach Pat Quinn. “A lot of guys played well. But a point is a point.”
Toronto went undefeated in five games this season against the rival Canadiens, with two wins and three ties.
While there were reports the Leafs may start Montréal native Sébastien Centomo in goal, in the end they went with Corey Schwab, who was sharp as Toronto outshot the Canadiens 28-21, including 4-1 in overtime.
Schwab, on the hot seat with number one goalie Curtis Joseph out with a hand injury, was pulled in favour of the rookie Centomo in Toronto’s last game, a 6-2 loss to Detroit.
Schwab’s stop on Yanic Perreault’s shot from the edge of the crease during a third-period power play may have saved his team a point in the standings.
“That’s the beauty of being able to play a lot – you get to go right back out there the next game,” said Schwab. “When you get pulled, you just have to be ready and sharp for the next game.”
A sellout crowd of 21,273 included a large contingent of blue-and-white clad Leafs supporters and there were competing chants from fans of the two teams throughout the match.
The Canadiens came out hitting and had the better chances early on, but it was the Leafs who scored first 16:45 into the opening period.
Shayne Corson attracted a crowd of defenders behind the Montréal net, allowing Green to skate out and fire a wrist shot over José Théodore’s shoulder.
The Leafs thought they had a two-goal lead at 12:07 of the second period when Gary Roberts’ shot trickled through Théodore’s pads and wobbled nervously on the goal line before it was swept away by defenceman Stéphane Quintal.
To count, the puck must completely cross the line and video replays showed it was only about 99 per cent in. It was ruled no goal.
“We saw it on our replays, but you can’t argue,’ said Quinn. “You don’t necessarily have anything to show it otherwise.”
Moments later, Jyrki Lumme was sent off for high-sticking and Juneau deflected Andrei Markov’s point shot past Schwab to tie the game at 14:04.
NOTES: A group of Canadian Olympic medalists received a big ovation when introduced for a pregame ceremony…Patrick Traverse, Stéphane Robidas and Mike Ribeiro were scratched for Montréal.
Story property of ESPN
BOXSCORE
1st Period
TOR PEN – 03:44 – Tucker, fighting major
MTL PEN – 03:44 – Bouillon, fighting major
MTL PEN – 06:31 – Quintal, interference
TOR PEN – 10:03 – Belak, roughing
TOR GOAL – 16:45 – Green (Corson, Lumme)
2nd Period
TOR PEN – 03:22 – McCabe, tripping
MTL PEN – 06:06 – Bouillon, holding
TOR PEN – 13:08 – Lumme, high sticking
MTL PP GOAL – 14:04 – Juneau (Markov, Brisebois)
TOR PEN – 14:51 – Green, fighting major
MTL PEN – 14:51 – Asham, fighting major
3rd Period
MTL PEN – 03:12 – Brisebois, slashing
TOR PEN – 05:02 – McCabe, interference
Overtime
none
GOALTENDERS
TOR – Schwab (T, 20-21)
MTL – Théodore (T, 27-28)
SHOTS ON GOAL
TOR – 6+12+6+4 = 28
MTL – 5+9+6+1 = 21
ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Sébastien Centomo, Corey Schwab. Defence: Wade Belak, Aki Berg, Cory Cross, Tomas Kaberle, Jyrki Lumme, Bryan McCabe, Karel Pilar. Forwards: Shayne Corson, Tie Domi, Travis Green, Paul Healey, Jonas Hoglund, Alyn McCauley, Robert Reichel, Gary Roberts, Mats Sundin (C), Darcy Tucker, Garry Valk.
MTL – Goaltenders: Mathieu Garon, José Théodore. Defence: Francis Bouillon, Patrice Brisebois, Karl Dykhuis, Andrei Markov, Stéphane Quintal, Craig Rivet. Forwards: Arron Asham, Sergei Berezin, Jan Bulis, Andreas Dackell, Doug Gilmour, Joé Juneau, Chad Kilger, Gino Odjick, Yanic Perreault, Oleg Petrov, Shaun Van Allen, Richard Zednik.
TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 33-20-7-4 (.602)
MTL – 27-26-9-3 (.508)
ATTENDANCE
21,273
THREE STARS
⭐ José Théodore (MTL)
⭐⭐ Mats Sundin (TOR)
⭐⭐⭐ Bryan McCabe (TOR)
Two Solitudes 