Game 656
Maple Leafs 2, Canadiens 2
Saturday, October 19, 2002
Centre Bell, Montréal, Québec
Mats Sundin couldn’t believe he wasn’t able to convert the Toronto Maple Leafs’ comeback into a win.
Sundin missed a great scoring chance early in overtime after setting up Tomas Kaberle’s short-handed goal with 8:15 left in the third period as Toronto tied the Montréal Canadiens 2-2 Saturday night.
Trailing 2-1 after Montréal scored twice in the second, Kaberle took Sundin’s drop pass and fired a slap shot past goalie Jeff Hackett.
Sundin had a chance for the winner in the first minute of overtime, but he couldn’t lift the rebound of his initial shot over Hackett to the relief of most of the sellout crowd of 21,273.
“I thought for sure I had the goal there,” Sundin said. “I wanted to make sure I was going to score. I waited him out and pulled it back a little bit and he dove across like a soccer goalie and got a piece of it. I’ll be thinking about that one until I fall asleep, for sure.”
Hackett made six of his 32 saves in overtime in his second straight start in place of NHL MVP José Théodore.
“I was just sprawling around like a fish out of water and I was lucky to get a piece of it,” Hackett said. “Mats has had a lot of success against me in his career and it’s just nice to keep him from getting a goal.”
Richard Zednik and Andreas Dackell scored for Montréal.
“It was a hard-fought point for both teams,” Hackett said. “It was a great game.”
Ed Belfour made 29 saves in his return to Toronto’s lineup after missing four games because of an infected cut on his right thumb.
“Both goalies were terrific and both teams competed hard,” Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn said. “The old Toronto-Montréal rivalry is alive and healthy and it’s good to see.”
Travis Green also scored for the Maple Leafs, who beat Phoenix 5-3 Thursday to end a three-game losing streak.
“We were down 2-1 after the second period and we knew we had to come back and put the puck in a little bit deeper,” Kaberle said. “That’s what we did and we got one in the middle of the third period and we’re happy for the one point tonight.”
Green opened the scoring 5:02 in when he took Nik Antropov’s pass from behind the goal line and beat Hackett with a wrist shot from the right circle.
Zednik tied it with his second of the season 1:34 into the second, though the goal was only awarded after a video review.
Zednik held the puck and had Belfour sprawled on the ice as he circled in front of the net before shooting into a goal-mouth scramble.
A television replay from behind the net clearly showed the puck crossed the goal line as it sat under defenceman Karel Pilar’s leg.
Dackell scored his second of the season to put Montréal ahead at 7:19 on a give-and-go with Jan Bulis.
Bulis intercepted Sundin’s cross-ice pass and exchanged passes with Dackell, who flipped the puck past Belfour as he passed the left side of the net.
Belfour slashed Randy McKay during a Montréal power play 14 minutes into the second. The Canadiens forward crashed to the ice and favoured his right leg as he went to the dressing room, though no penalty was called on the play.
NOTES: Belfour and McKay – who returned for the third period – were briefly teammates last season after McKay was traded to Dallas by New Jersey on March 19. “It must have been a lucky shot – he’s a tough guy,” Belfour said…Théodore allowed a total of 12 goals in two home losses following a season-opening 4-1 win over the Rangers in New York on October 11.
Story property of ESPN
BOXSCORE
1st Period
TOR GOAL – 05:02 – Green (Antropov, Fitzgerald)
MTL PEN – 06:53 – Petrov, cross checking
MTL PEN – 13:24 – Markov, high sticking
TOR PEN – 16:39 – team, too many men on the ice
2nd Period
MTL GOAL – 01:34 – Zednik (McKay, Koivu)
TOR PEN – 04:21 – Renberg, tripping
MTL GOAL – 07:19 – Dackell (Bulis)
MTL PEN – 08:30 – Rivet, slashing
TOR PEN – 13:05 – Reichel, high sticking double minor
MTL PEN – 16:00 – Koivu, interference
MTL PEN – 17:54 – Rivet, slashing
3rd Period
TOR PEN – 09:53 – Renberg, hooking
TOR SH GOAL – 11:45 – Kaberle (Sundin, Mogilny)
GOALTENDERS
TOR – Belfour (T, 29-31)
MTL – Hackett (T, 32-34)
SHOTS ON GOAL
TOR – 9+8+11+6 = 34
MTL – 13+6+10+2 = 31
ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Ed Belfour, Trevor Kidd. Defence: Aki Berg, Tomas Kaberle, Jyrki Lumme, Bryan McCabe (A), Karel Pilar, Robert Svehla. Forwards: Nikolai Antropov, Shayne Corson, Tie Domi, Tom Fitzgerald, Travis Green, Jonas Hoglund, Alyn McCauley, Alexander Mogilny, Robert Reichel, Mikael Renberg, Mats Sundin (C), Darcy Tucker.
MTL – Goaltenders: Jeff Hackett, José Théodore. Defence: Patrice Brisebois (A), Karl Dykhuis, Andrei Markov, Stéphane Quintal, Craig Rivet (A), Patrick Traverse. Forwards: Donald Audette, Jan Bulis, Mariusz Czerkawski, Andreas Dackell, Doug Gilmour, Joé Juneau, Chad Kilger, Saku Koivu (C), Randy McKay, Yanic Perreault, Oleg Petrov, Richard Zednik.
TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 2-3-1-0 (.417)
MTL – 2-2-1-0 (.500)
ATTENDANCE
21,273
THREE STARS
⭐ Jeff Hackett (MTL)
⭐⭐ Saku Koivu (MTL)
⭐⭐⭐ Andreas Dackell (MTL)
Two Solitudes 