Game 658
Maple Leafs 3, Canadiens 2 (OT)
Saturday, January 18, 2003
Centre Bell, Montréal, Québec
Nik Antropov used a simple and effective plan to score his first career overtime goal.
Antropov scored his 12th of the season 56 seconds into overtime as the Toronto Maple Leafs spoiled new Montréal coach Claude Julien’s NHL debut with a 3-2 victory over the Canadiens on Saturday night.
After Montréal tied it with 7:06 left in regulation, Antropov took the puck the length of the ice before firing a shot from the slot off goalie José Théodore’s left shoulder and into the net to give Toronto its third straight win.
“In overtime I know a lot of guys just shoot the puck and good things happen, so I did,” Antropov said.
Trailing 2-0 after the first, the Canadiens came back on Yanic Perreault’s goal late in the second and Mariusz Czerkawski’s score 12:54 into the third to force overtime.
“I said if we got a goal, we could make it 2-1 and be back in it, and we did that, and we managed to do it again in the third and get ourselves a point,” said Julien, promoted from Hamilton of the AHL on Friday.
Julien, who had no previous NHL coaching experience, replaced Michel Therrien, fired after the Canadiens won just two of 12 games.
Travis Green and Robert Reichel scored 5:21 apart in the first for the Maple Leafs, who have won six of eight.
Mikael Tellqvist stopped nine of 10 shots to claim the win after taking over from Trevor Kidd, who left the game with a groin injury 5:30 into the third.
“It was an entertaining game,” Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin said. “We knew Montréal would be fired up with a new coach. They had a little more jump than us tonight. Our goaltenders saved the day for us and we were able to squeeze two points out.”
Green opened the scoring 9:03 in when he one-timed Shayne Corson’s pass to the left of goalie José Théodore for his eighth of the season.
Reichel scored his seventh at 14:24 when his pass from behind the net hit the skate of Montréal defenceman Patrick Traverse before deflecting in off Perreault’s skate.
Outshot 14-9 in the first, Montréal turned that around in the second. The Canadiens held a 17-8 advantage, and Perreault beat Kidd at 19:53 to draw the Canadiens within one.
Czerkawski, who played for Julien in Hamilton after being briefly demoted, scored his third of the season with 7:06 left in regulation. He beat Tellqvist with a shot into the top right corner.
NOTES: Kidd, who stopped 28 of 29 shots before leaving the game, made his second start in as many nights in place of Ed Belfour. Belfour, selected to the Eastern Conference All-Star team Thursday, is day-to-day because of back spasms…Toronto used its timeout with 11:06 remaining in the third…Julien led Hamilton to an AHL-best record of 33-6-3-3 this season.
Story property of ESPN
BOXSCORE
1st Period
TOR PEN – 02:42 – Reichel, high sticking
TOR GOAL – 09:03 – Green (Corson, Tucker)
TOR PEN – 11:29 – Belak, fighting major
MTL PEN – 11:29 – McKay, fighting major
MTL PEN – 11:40 – Juneau, hooking
TOR GOAL – 14:24 – Reichel (Domi, Svehla)
TOR PEN – 16:35 – Renberg, holding
MTL PEN – 17:39 – Perreault, cross checking
MTL PEN – 19:05 – Quintal, tripping
2nd Period
TOR PEN – 01:28 – McCabe, hooking
TOR PEN – 04:43 – Green, unsportsmanlike conduct
TOR PEN – 14:02 – Antropov, tripping
TOR PEN – 17:14 – Antropov, hooking
MTL GOAL – 19:53 – Perreault (Bulis, Petrov)
3rd Period
MTL GOAL – 12:54 – Czerkawski (Dackell, Juneau)
Overtime
TOR GOAL – 00:56 – Antropov (Kaberle)
GOALTENDERS
TOR – Kidd (28-29), Tellqvist (W, 9-10)
MTL – Théodore (L, 24-27)
SHOTS ON GOAL
TOR – 14+8+4+1 = 27
MTL – 9+17+13+0 = 39
ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Trevor Kidd, Mikael Tellqvist. Defence: Wade Belak, Aki Berg, Anders Eriksson, Ric Jackman, Tomas Kaberle, Bryan McCabe (A), Robert Svehla. Forwards: Nikolai Antropov, Shayne Corson, Tie Domi, Travis Green, Paul Healey, Jonas Hoglund, Alyn McCauley, Robert Reichel, Mikael Renberg, Mats Sundin (C), Darcy Tucker.
MTL – Goaltenders: Jeff Hackett, José Théodore. Defence: Patrice Brisebois (A), Ron Hainsey, Andrei Markov, Stéphane Quintal, Craig Rivet (A), Patrick Traverse. Forwards: Sylvain Blouin, Jan Bulis, Mariusz Czerkawski, Andreas Dackell, Marcel Hossa, Joé Juneau, Saku Koivu (C), Randy McKay, Yanic Perreault, Oleg Petrov, Mike Ribeiro, Richard Zednik.
TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 25-17-4-1 (.585)
MTL – 18-19-5-5 (.489)
ATTENDANCE
21,273
THREE STARS
⭐ José Théodore (MTL)
⭐⭐ Trevor Kidd (TOR)
⭐⭐⭐ Nikolai Antropov (TOR)
Two Solitudes 