Game 662
Maple Leafs 1, Canadiens 0
Saturday, October 18, 2003
Centre Bell, Montréal, Québec
Buoyed by a game-winning goal, Ric Jackman felt no pain where his left front tooth used to be.
Jackman scored a power-play goal in the first period to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 1-0 victory over the Montréal Canadiens on Saturday night.
The Toronto defenceman lost his tooth in the second period – leaving the game briefly after he was struck in the mouth by the stick of Montréal left wing Jason Ward.
“It was a clean break and just popped out, and that’s the end of it,” said Jackman, who continued playing without a painkiller.
His goal was the low-scoring Maple Leafs’ second with the man advantage this season, and just their fifth overall in four games. Jackman hadn’t scored since December 31, 1999 – a span of 71 games.
When asked if the goal was fair trade for his tooth, he said, “I’ll take that.”
Ed Belfour earned his 66th career shutout as Toronto got its first win of the season.
“We’ve been working hard for it and it’s a nice place to have it, too,” Belfour said.
After allowing a tying goal with two seconds left in regulation against New Jersey on Thursday, Belfour stopped 15 shots – including back-to-back saves on chances by Michael Ryder and Andreas Dackell midway through the third period. Belfour tied Patrick Roy for 11th place on the career shutout list and leads all active goalies.
“I’m just happy to get it,” Belfour said.
Montréal, which honoured Hall of Famer Jean Béliveau before to the game, had won three games in a row.
Injured captain Saku Koivu and all of the Canadiens’ players in uniform wore number 4 “Béliveau” jerseys with a captain’s “C” during pregame ceremonies as the team honoured the 50th anniversary of his first contract with the club.
Maple Leafs right wing Alexander Mogilny missed his second straight game because of a sore groin.
Canadiens rookie left wing Michael Ryder collided with teammate Donald Audette in the neutral zone midway through the first period, drawing a cheer from the numerous Toronto fans among the sellout Bell Centre crowd of 21,273.
Jackman scored while Ward was serving his second minor of the period.
Toronto defenceman Tomas Kaberle fed a pass to the point, and Jackman drove a slap shot off goalie José Théodore’s right arm and into the net.
Ward accounted for four of Montréal’s seven minor penalties, including a double minor for high-sticking Jackman 11:57 into the second.
“We took way too many penalties tonight,” defenceman Sheldon Souray said. “We didn’t have a chance to play our defensive system – we were penalty killing.”
Théodore, who shut out the Maple Leafs a week earlier and made his fifth straight start, stopped Nik Antropov on a short-handed breakaway chance early in the third after the Canadiens turned over the puck.
“Jose made some huge saves but when you take that many penalties and give that many opportunities against such a great team, we were lucky to be down just by one after two,” Souray said.
Théodore, who stopped 24 shots, has allowed just three goals in four games.
NOTES: Belfour is one shutout behind Roy Worters, who is 10th on the career list with 67…Ward threw up his arms when he was called for tripping Owen Nolan 3:10 into the first, despite having his stick blade caught in Nolan’s skate…Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi had his nose bloodied when he was inadvertently struck by Audette’s stick off a faceoff early in the first. There was no penalty called on the play despite Domi’s protests to referee Paul Devorski. “His nose is about a half-an-inch closer to his face than it was earlier…that’s really close,” Toronto coach Pat Quinn joked…Béliveau had 507 goals and 712 assists in 1,125 regular season games, and 79 goals and 97 assists in the playoffs while winning 10 Stanley Cups – five as Montréal’s captain.
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BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL PEN – 03:10 – Ward, tripping
MTL PEN – 12:32 – Ward, high sticking
TOR PP GOAL – 14:22 – Jackman (Kaberle, Renberg)
2nd Period
MTL PEN – 09:58 – Ribeiro, tripping
MTL PEN – 11:57 – Ward, high sticking double minor
TOR PEN – 14:08 – Antropov, roughing
MTL PEN – 17:28 – Hossa, boarding
3rd Period
TOR PEN – 01:17 – Marchment, hooking
TOR PEN – 11:05 – Reichel, tripping
MTL PEN – 13:03 – Markov, cross checking
GOALTENDERS
TOR – Belfour (W + SO, 15-15)
MTL – Théodore (L, 24-25)
SHOTS ON GOAL
TOR – 7+14+4 = 25
MTL – 6+7+2 = 15
ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Ed Belfour, Mikael Tellqvist. Defence: Aki Berg, Ric Jackman, Tomas Kaberle, Ken Klee, Maxim Kondratiev, Bryan Marchment. Forwards: Nikolai Antropov, Tie Domi, Tom Fitzgerald, Joe Nieuwendyk, Owen Nolan, Nathan Perrott, Robert Reichel, Mikael Renberg, Gary Roberts (A), Matt Stajan, Mats Sundin (C), Darcy Tucker.
MTL – Goaltenders: Mathieu Garon, José Théodore. Defence: Francis Bouillon, Patrice Brisebois, Andrei Markov, Stéphane Quintal, Craig Rivet (A), Sheldon Souray (A). Forwards: Donald Audette, Steve Bégin, Jan Bulis, Andreas Dackell, Marcel Hossa, Joé Juneau, Yanic Perreault, Mike Ribeiro, Michael Ryder, Niklas Sundstrom, Jason Ward, Richard Zednik.
TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 1-1-2-0 (.500)
MTL – 3-2-0-0 (.600)
ATTENDANCE
21,273
THREE STARS
⭐ Nathan Perrott (TOR)
⭐⭐ José Théodore (MTL)
⭐⭐⭐ Ric Jackman (TOR)
Two Solitudes 