Game 670
Maple Leafs 4, Canadiens 3 (OT)
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
José Théodore thought the officials played for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
“It’s hard to play seven against five for the whole game,” the Montréal goalie said after Mats Sundin scored a power-play goal at 1:29 of overtime to give the Maple Leafs a 4-3 victory over the Canadiens.
Montréal’s Craig Rivet was called for tripping Nik Antropov at the end of regulation, giving Toronto the man advantage in overtime.
The Canadiens had seven penalties. Toronto had three.
Théodore said he wasn’t going to get himself in trouble with the officials before making the comment.
“We all know our hockey. We all saw what happened for 60 minutes. It’s frustrating,” Théodore said.
Coach Claude Julien didn’t like the Rivet call or that a Montréal goal was waved off earlier in the game.
“Guys, I can’t answer too many of these questions because you know what that means, and my wallet is not thick enough,” Julien said.
Sundin took advantage of Rivet’s penalty. After Sundin’s pass from the side of the net deflected off a Montréal player and back to him, Sundin put a quick shot past Théodore.
After the goal, Montréal’s Andrei Markov received a 10-minute misconduct penalty for abuse of officials.
“There are so many things we need explanations about,” Julien said. “We need to find out whey these things are happening.”
Jeff O’Neill, Jason Allison and Chad Kilger also scored for the Maple Leafs, who have won 10 of their last 13 against their Original Six rival.
Games between Toronto and Montréal are among the most widely watched games in Canada. They’ve been featured there other times this season on CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada.”
“The tradition makes for a great atmosphere. You have both teams fan in the building. These games are a lot of fun to play,” Toronto goalie Ed Belfour said.
Tomas Plekanec, Mike Ribeiro and Alexander Perezhogin scored for the Canadiens, who have lost four of their last five games,
Théodore fell to 4-11-3-1 in his career against Toronto.
Both teams were coming off losses Friday night.
Toronto outshot Montréal 16-7 in the first period and scored twice. Allison put a rebound past a sprawled Théodore at 5:35 of the first.
After a Montréal turnover in Toronto’s end, Kilger skated up the ice before passing it off and scoring on a rebound with a backhand shot at 16:59 of the first.
Ribeiro cut it 2-1 with a wrist shot that went between Belfour’s pads at 7:18 of the second, and Perezhogin tied it by tipping Andrei Markov’s shot from the point at 11:00 of the second.
But Sundin faked a shot before threading a pass to O’Neill, whose backhand shot from in front gave Toronto the lead at 16:33 of the second.
Montréal’s Plekanec tied it at 3 with 4:49 left in the third, beating Belfour with a wrist shot off a passing play with Michael Ryder.
NOTES: Toronto avoided a three-game losing streak…Toronto’s Darcy Tucker missed his second straight game to be with his wife, who is expecting a child…Toronto’s Staffan Kronwall left the game after straining a knee in the second…Since losing their first two home games, the Maple Leafs are 9-3-0 at the Air Canada Centre.
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BOXSCORE
1st Period
MTL PEN – 00:33 – Perezhogin, interference
TOR GOAL – 05:35 – Allison (Antropov, Ponikarovsky)
MTL PEN – 09:52 – Dandenault, cross checking
MTL PEN – 12:51 – Streit, hooking
TOR GOAL – 16:59 – Kilger (O’Neill, Lindros)
2nd Period
TOR PEN – 00:54 – Wellwood, hooking
MTL GOAL – 07:18 – Ribeiro (Bulis, Dagenais)
MTL GOAL – 11:00 – Perezhogin (Markov, Rivet)
TOR PEN – 11:47 – O’Neill, hooking
MTL PEN – 14:38 – Bégin, hooking
TOR PP GOAL – 16:33 – O’Neill (Sundin, Steen)
MTL PEN – 18:17 – Zednik, cross checking
3rd Period
TOR PEN – 05:40 – Kilger, slashing
MTL GOAL – 15:11 – Plekanec (Ryder)
MTL PEN – 20:00 – Rivet, tripping
Overtime
TOR PP GOAL – 01:29 – Sundin (Kaberle, McCabe)
MTL PEN – 01:29 – Markov, game misconduct
GOALTENDERS
TOR – Belfour (W, 30-33)
MTL – Théodore (OTL, 33-37)
SHOTS ON GOAL
TOR – 16+13+6+2 = 37
MTL – 7+13+13+0 = 33
ROSTERS
TOR – Goaltenders: Ed Belfour, Mikael Tellqvist. Defence: Aki Berg, Tomas Kaberle (A), Alexander Khavanov, Ken Klee, Staffan Kronwall, Bryan McCabe (A). Forwards: Jason Allison, Nikolai Antropov, Tie Domi, Chad Kilger, Eric Lindros, Jeff O’Neill, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Matt Stajan, Alexander Steen, Mats Sundin (C), Kyle Wellwood, Clarke Wilm.
MTL – Goaltenders: Yann Danis, José Théodore. Defence: Francis Bouillon, Mathieu Dandenault, Mike Komisarek, Andrei Markov, Craig Rivet (A), Mark Streit. Forwards: Steve Bégin, Radek Bonk, Jan Bulis, Pierre Dagenais, Christopher Higgins, Saku Koivu (C), Alexander Perezhogin, Tomas Plekanec, Mike Ribeiro, Michael Ryder, Niklas Sundstrom, Richard Zednik.
TEAM RECORDS
TOR – 13-8-3 (.604)
MTL – 14-6-4 (.667)
ATTENDANCE
19,505
THREE STARS
⭐ Mats Sundin (TOR)
⭐⭐ Ed Belfour (TOR)
⭐⭐⭐ Jeff O’Neill (TOR)
Two Solitudes 