Sunday, December 26, 2010

Leafs weather storm in Jersey

Leaf  Colby Armstrong, with Kris Versteeg, celebrates after his first of two goals against the Devils on Sunday night.

Leaf Colby Armstrong, with Kris Versteeg, celebrates after his first of two goals against the Devils on Sunday night.

RAY STUBBLEBINE/REUTERS

NEWARK, N.J.?It was a white hell outside but the Maple Leafs had little trouble with the Devils inside.

As snow battered the U.S. Northeast Sunday ? limiting attendance to a sparse assembly of about 2,500 ?Toronto stormed a Jersey squad that is colder than the weather. The Leafs broke a three-game losing streak with a 4-1 win.

For the once-proud Devs, this was their fifth consecutive loss ? they?ve been outscored 24-5 in that handful of outings ? and they?ve lost 10 of their last 11. It?s almost impossible to believe that just a year ago at the Christmas break, Jersey was the NHL?s best team. Now they?re 30th.

Resurrected coach Jacques Lemaire has lost both games, against the Islanders and Leafs, since replacing John MacLean behind the Jersey bench.

But the Leafs have enough troubles of their own to be holding a pity party for anyone else and, on this night, the weather proved to be trickier for the Leafs than their opponent. Their plans to fly home immediately after the game were cancelled and team officials were making plans to practise in Jersey on Monday.

Colby Armstrong with two, John Mitchell and Nikolai Kulemin scored for Toronto while Jonas Gustavsson overcame some poor rebound control to play a very solid game in net for the Leafs. He was just over seven minutes from his second career shutout when Rod Pelley scored for Jersey.

It was an odd night at the Prudential Center. The gathering likely wouldn?t have been huge given that this tilt was between two of the worst three teams in the NHL but the relentless snow meant only about 1,000 fans were on hand at the start. Though the official attendance was announced at 5,329, it appeared to be about half of that.

It?s not the smallest gathering to watch a Devils game in Jersey. In January of 1987, at the Devils? old building in the Meadowlands, only 394 fans attended a game against Calgary in a snowstorm.

With the entire arena looking like the Air Canada Centre platinum seats at the start of a period, the Leafs seemed very comfortable in their surroundings and jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first.

The goal was a post-Christmas present for Armstrong, gift wrapped by Jersey?s Brian Rolston. Facing some pressure from a forechecking Kris Versteeg, Rolston showed why the Devs recently put him on waivers. He carelessly fired the puck towards the middle of the ice off Versteeg?s stick and it fluttered right to Armstrong in the slot. Armstrong easily flipped a wrister over the outstretched catching glove of Martin Brodeur for his second of the season.

Brodeur, in the midst of a horrible season anyway, has never dominated the Leafs the way he has other franchises. Coming in, he had a 19-16-9 career record against Toronto with a 2.51 goals against average and .906 save mark. He hasn?t made it to the end of either game against the Leafs this season, though in a 3-1 loss at Toronto in November he departed because of an arm injury.

In this one, he was pulled trailing 3-0 after two periods and replaced by Johan Hedberg.

A second period fight featured an unlikely pairing when Toronto?s Dion Phaneuf and erstwhile Jersey sniper Ilya Kovalchuk, dropped the gloves after banging into each other while battling for a loose puck in the corner. It ended up, mostly, being a standing wrestling match with Kovalchuk holding his own ? the $100-million man scores better with his glove off than on ? though Phaneuf did land a couple of blows past the high-priced winger?s hug defence.

Halfway through the second period, the Leafs had yet to record 10 shots on net but they did have a 2-0 lead.

John Mitchell doubled Toronto?s lead with what was also his second goal of the season. Again Versteeg played a big part as he drove down the left wing and cut to the front of the net to test Brodeur. Mitchell was quick to pounce on the rebound and bang it in.

Then, with what looked like their dying breath, the Devils had about five minutes of relentless and sustained pressure before Toronto jumped to a 3-0 on just their 12th shot of the period. It was a beautiful shot from Kulemin past a perfect Mikhail Grabovski screen but the play underlined just how weak these current Devils are in the own end.

Clarke MacArthur easily outfought Jersey defenceman Anton Volchenkov for the puck in the corner to the left of Brodeur and fed the puck out to Kulemin, who danced around the defence untouched until he was in perfect position to put the puck in the top corner.

It was Toronto?s first 3-0 lead since the second game of the season, an eventual 5-1 win over Ottawa.

Serena Williams Andrew Napolitano Ana Ivanovic Mia Hamm

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