Punchless Hawks KO'd

By DAVE FULLER -- Toronto Sun CHICAGO -- The Blackhawks showed again last night that they're big and they're bad. But not in a good way.
In fact, there ought to be more fright than fight left in the Hawks following last night's punchless 2-1 loss to Toronto. The Maple Leafs were not only missing their top two centres -- Mats Sundin and Igor Korolev -- but coach Pat Quinn elected to rest all-world goaltender Curtis Joseph in preparation for tonight's game in St. Louis. Glenn Healy got the start instead.
The 37-year-old backup came within 7:05 of registering his first shutout since Dec. 7, 1996 when, as a New York Ranger, he blanked Toronto 4-0.
Hawks centre Josef Marha wrecked the chance with a power-play goal from the circle that Cory Cross inadvertently tipped behind his goaltender.
But Healy was terrific during a last-minute Hawks onslaught, preserving Toronto's fifth win in seven starts.
"We are playing a lot of games in this stretch now, so we felt it would be important to get Glenn in and also give Curtis a break," Quinn said.
"It turns out it was really smart. He was the difference in what turned out to be a pretty even game."
The performance also allowed the Leafs to reclaim first place in the Eastern Conference, a point ahead of the Ottawa Senators, who hold a game in hand.
Streaking summer pickup Jonas Hoglund extended his scoring streak to an NHL-best five games with a power-play deflection in the first period. With six goals in seven games, the left winger is within two goals of matching the eight he scored for the Montreal Canadiens last season.
He has notched his past three without Sundin to feed him.
"I feel good about my own game," Hoglund said. "Sure (Sundin is) a big part of the line, but Yanic (Perreault) has come in and is playing great."
Perreault scored the winner at 16:07 of the second period on a two-on-one with Hoglund.
The Leafs, who haven't lost at Chicago in three years (they're 7-0-1 since April 11, 1996) also snapped Chicago's 11-game home unbeaten streak.
Quinn sat down Derek King and dressed Kris King for just the second time last night, figuring the Hawks might try to bully his team.
It didn't happen. In fact, neither club seemed interested in punishing the other with both needing a win.
In the end, the Leafs improved their record to 2-1 without their injured captain while the Hawks are still scratching for their first win.
"It's only been three games since (Sundin) was injured," Perreault said. "I think it's going to take a few weeks to (prove ourselves), but at least we're headed in the right direction. We know it's going to be tight games without Mats. I don't think we're going to win any games by three or four goals."
It took the Hawks 13 minutes to register their second shot on goal while Toronto didn't exactly terrorize Chicago goaltender Jocelyn Thibault, either.
The Leafs did score a power-play goal when Steve Thomas passed the puck out of the corner to Alexander Karpovtsev, who spotted Hoglund parked at the far corner of the net for a neat deflection.
Wendel Clark, one of four ex-Leafs in Chicago's lineup, admitted the rivalry between the teams has lost some of its flavour.
"I don't think it's the same feeling," said Clark, who snapped a shot off the post late in the opening period. "They're in a new building, we're in a new building. We're not in the same division anymore. It doesn't feel like it used to."

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