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DEVILS 3, Maple Leafs 3
Devils, Leafs knotted at 3
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Scotty Gomez may be a rookie, but he's certainly not playing like one.
Gomez scored with 8:41 left in the third period to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 3-3 tie with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
"I'm living my wildest dream," said Gomez, who leads the Devils in scoring with three goals and 12 assists. "I'm just taking it day by day. But so far everything feels great."
Gomez, who also assisted on the Devils' other two goals, tied the game for New Jersey when he pounced on a rebound off a Brendan Morrison shot and pushed the puck past Toronto goalie Curtis Joseph.
"Everyone would have liked to get two points from this one, but these are two heavyweight teams so we'll take it," Gomez said. "In fact, I think we showed a lot of character in coming back after blowing that 2-0 lead and allowing three straight goals."
The Devils (7-5-2) dominated the overtime but were unable to convert. An apparent goal by Brian Rafalski was nullified by an offside call.
Mats Sundin's unassisted goal just 46 seconds into the third period gave Toronto a 3-2 lead. Sundin beat Martin Brodeur with a shot that slipped in off the goalies' pads.
"New Jersey is one of the best and to take a point out of here after trailing by two goals is something we can be happy about," Sundin said.
Claude Lemieux, playing his first home game since being acquired in an Oct. 3 trade with Colorado, gave the Devils a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal at 14:19 of the first period.
Lemieux took a shot from the right circle that appeared to be deflected off a Toronto defender and slide into the net off the stick of Joseph.
It marked the end of a seven-game drought in which the Devils had been 0-20 on the power play and the Maple Leafs had successfully killed off 20 straight power plays.
"I think we played pretty well," said New Jersey coach Robbie Ftorek. "We still obviously need work on a lot of areas and you like to protect the lead, but we're working to those means."
Lemieux added his second power-play goal at 3:31 of the second period when he took a pass from Gomez and flicked the puck past Joseph from the slot. Gomez also assisted on Lemieux' first goal to extend his scoring streak to six games.
Trailing 2-0, the Maple Leafs got on the board at 5:40 of the second period when Sergei Berezin came in alone and beat Brodeur with a shot between his legs.
Toronto tied at 14:55 when Todd Warriner redirected Bryan's Berard's shot from the right point.
Summary
------------------------------- Toronto 0 2 1 0--3 New Jersey 1 1 1 0--3 ------------------------------- FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, New Jersey, Lemieux 4 (power play) (Gomez, Rafalski), 14:19. Penalties: Mcallister, Tor (Obstr tripping), 4:50; Nemchinov, N.J. (high sticking), 10:34; Cross, Tor (interference), 13:38; Arnott, N.J. (interference), 18:12. SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 2, New Jersey, Lemieux 5 (power play) (Gomez, Holik), 3:31. 3, Toronto, S Berezin 7 (Di Yushkevich), 5:40. 4, Toronto, T Warriner 3 (B Berard, Mccauley), 14:55. Penalties: Markov, Tor (Ob holding the stick), 2:45; Holik, N.J. (roughing), 18:29. THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 5, Toronto, Sundin 6 (unassisted), 0:46. 6, New Jersey, Gomez 3 (Morrison, Nemchinov), 8:41. Penalties: Morrison, N.J. (slashing), 8:54; Lemieux, N.J. (slashing), 13:54. OVERTIME -- Scoring: None. Shots on goal: ------------------------------------ Toronto 6 10 8 1--25 New Jersey 8 10 5 4--27 ------------------------------------ Power-play Conversions: Tor - 0 of 5, Njd - 2 of 3. Goalies: Toronto, Joseph (27 shots, 24 saves; record: 8-2-2). New Jersey, M Brodeur (25, 22; record: 7-3-2). A:15,402. Referee: Stewart. Linesmen: Broseker, Nowak.
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